With a view to promote Indian delicacies across the nation and globe, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), an institution established by ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) for research and education, is working to standardise the recipes of the traditional Indian delicacies under the flagship programme of Make in India.
India is known for its traditional foods, which are mostly restricted to the unorganised sector at present. To make these highly in demand traditional food products popular all over the country as well as the world, the 12 traditional dishes are chosen from among various states of India. The chosen dishes include Mudhi, one of the staple foods of Odisha, 'Gushtaba' from Kashmir, Chicken Curry of Punjab, 'Khaakhra' and 'Khandvi' of Gujarat, Bamboo steam fish of south India, Vada and Medu Vada of South India, Khaja and Inarsa of Bihar, Kabab of Uttar Pradesh and Puran Poli of Maharashtra.
“We are working to develop a standardised recipe of these popular delicacies from India. We will have chefs working with us to develop a recipe which can be standardised. The standardisation of the recipe here means actually disclosing the ingredients used in right amounts for mass production. We at NIFTEM are in the process to develop a special machinery to manufacture these recipes with precision. Over all, we are still on a developing stage where we are identifying the best suited design to formulate the process of packaging,” said Ajit Kumar, vice-chancellor, NIFTEM, at a recentMake in India discussion on opportunities in food processing.
“The food processing market is growing as food processing minister Badal has initiated reforms to foster the development of the sector. These 13 chosen delicacies are likely to face some supply chain issues. Our logistics network is not enough to ensure safety of perishable commodities. Thus, this area of storage will be addressed with an effective packaging over the product,” informed Kumar.
“Marketing of these 12 dishes will also be undertaken to promote them across the nation and globe,” added Kumar
Kumar informed that the Intellectual Property Rights cell of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) has got geographical indication (GI) registration for Mudhi long back in 2008.
