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CSIR-CFTRI develops curd using Bifidobcurd tech, looks for tech transfer
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Saturday, 30 November, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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CSIR-CFTRI has now developed curd using Bifidobcurd technology. The institute invites potential industry players for talks on technology transfer.
The research was undertaken by CSIR, New Delhi, under the 12th Five Year Plan project spanning 2012-2017. The bacterium used in this product development is currently under investigation for EPS (Extracellular Polymeric Substances) production and genome editing for probiotic functionalities by two of post-doctorate students at the CSIR-CFTRI (CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute) laboratory. From isolation of the potential cultures till functional food formulation it was the journey of six years by a PhD student and project fellows.
Bifidobcurd technology has been approved by CSIR-CFTRI. The team comprised Dr Prakash M Halami, principal investigator, who is also senior principal scientist & professor, AcSIR, CSIR-CFTRI. Dr S V N Vijayendra, microbiologist; Devendra Haware, chemist; Velu V, process engineer; and Sajan Ach, PhD student, AcSIR. Dr Halami told FnB News: “As a functional food development, preclinical studies have been accomplished. We have now initiated clinical trials on cancer patients and healthy individuals. In addition, this is also extended for geriatric food.”
He added, “Since this technology is ready for commercialisation, we invite the potential industry players for discussion. There is need to convince positive health benefits offered by bifidobacteria over conventional lactic acid bacteria that are found in the routine dairy product.”
The technology of bifidobcurd has been evaluated by the institutional committee for its process, product development, dossier, cost of production, health benefits, possible market potential and so on. Now, it is the role of entrepreneurs and multinational companies to take this product to public, according to Dr Halami.
The next generation probiotics refers to the health promoting bacteria that are different from routine probiotic microorganisms like Lactobacillus. The rare and new organisms that are identified during human microbiome analysis are known to exhibit potential health benefits considered as next generation probiotics. Hence, they represent primarily the organisms that have not been used to promote the health of the host to date. However, they represent live organisms that can be used for prevention, treatment and cure of human diseases.
Bifidobacteria offer array of health benefits to host and are not explored individually. Bifidobacterium are gram-positive, anaerobic, catalase-negative high G + C containing nonmotile and non-sporulating bacteria of Y or V shape morphology. They offer several health benefits to the host especially modulation of gut microbial homeostatis, digestion of undigestable food, immune system maturation, short chain fatty acid production and so on.
As part of an awareness drive bifidobcurd has been exhibited during several institutional in-house programmes. Also, it was displayed during international conference-IFCON 2018. The response from consumers was encouraging.
When asked about the competitive curd market and how CFTRI curd was going to position the product, Dr Halami said that the pure culture of bifidobacteria was stored at 4 deg. C and is now positioned as one-of-a-kind and there was no other such probiotic product available in the market.
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