Japanese Delegation Explores Food Processing Collaboration with NIFTEM-K

Ms. Masami Oota (First Secretary, Embassy of Japan), Mr. Shun Hosaka (Second Secretary, Embassy of Japan), Ms. Kato Maria (Representative from Japan International Cooperation Agency - JICA), Ms. Inagaki Yukari (Project Formulation Advisor, JICA) and Ms. Sushma Sen Adarshi (Development Specialist, JICA) visited NIFTEM-K and met Dr. Harinder Singh Oberoi, (Director, NIFTEM-K) and other scientists and researchers of the institute.

The meeting aimed at strengthening the participation and exploring the possibilities of collaboration in food processing sector between NIFTEM-K and Japanese Universities especially for research and academia.

Dr. Harinder Singh Oberoi emphasised on the scope of rice processing in India, the need of products’ diversification and economic viability for customers, need for research on new product development, small- and medium- scale machine designing and strengthening post-harvest supply chain etc.

In the discussions, two sides also stressed upon new product development viz. rice bread, rice noodles etc. from rice flour, development of small to medium scale rice milling, rice polishing machinery for farmers and SHG’s, need for fermented rice beverages like Sake and Amazake and 3D food printing and scanning. Moreover, JICA and NIFTEM can work jointly in the villages under Village Adoption Prog of NIFTEM to promote food processing and entrepreneurship among rural population.

The Japanese delegates visited the NIFTEM pilot plants, Centre of Excellence for Food Fortification (CEFF) and Centre for Food research and Analysis (CFRA). The prospects of using the NIFTEM facilities for Pilot scale production, trainings and new product development were explored. Also, the scope of technology transfer to Japanese industries and Joint IPR sharing was discussed.