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Developing digestible food items for armed forces, key task for researchers
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Wednesday, 25 January, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bangalore
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Development of palatable and digestible operational food items for the armed forces is a major task before food researchers.
“The innovations which are being done should have a practical approach for the end-user with much load on the economy. There is need to rationalise the special food items with respect to the existing ration scale to ease procurement audit procedures,” explains Lt Col H K Tiwari, Indian Navy BV (base victualling) Yard, Mumbai.
In a presentation on Indian Navy and Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL): Scope and Future, he said that it was important for DFRL to direct its research to develop packaging technologies for the fresh provisions intended for sea-going ships as they were subjected to delay.
“The unexpected inordinate delays resulted in the ripening of fruits and the softening of vegetables. It was of utmost need to focus on the development of mandatory packaging properties like safe transport,” he added during an International Symposium on Recent Trends in Processing & Safety of Speciality Foods and Operational Foods, organised by DFRL.
Mysore-based DFRL is the leading centre for food research in the country engaged in developing quality operational food items for the armed forces. “The requirement of high fibre and high energy foods having long shelf-life was called for,” he stated.
According to Shashi Bala Singh of Defence Institute of Physiology, and Allied Sciences, the success of military operations largely depends on physical and mental status of the soldiers. Nutritional requirements of the armed forces personnel and adequacy of ration scales have been determined after conducting studies under actual field conditions. Decreased food intake due to high altitude anorexia causes negative energy balance leading to loss of body mass in low-landers visiting the high altitudes.
High carbohydrate diets are beneficial under hypoxic environment of high altitudes during early days of acclimatisation. The taste thresholds and sensitivity change at high altitude along with disturbances in appetite regulatory hormones. “This is where the planning of ration for combat operations is a challenging task as the balance between nutrient requirement for optimum health and palatability needs to be ensured,” he said.
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