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IIT KGP’s 3 engineers develop therapeutic foods to combat malnutrition
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Tuesday, 11 March, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Libin Chacko Kurian, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d To combat malnutrition in children, three food engineers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT KGP) - H N Mishra (principal investigator) and Ph D students Rakesh Kumar Rajgir and Danie Shajie - developed the formulations for five inexpensive ready-to-eat therapeutic foods and transferred these to the industry for mass production.
Three of these are peanut-based, and one each is potato- and Bengal gram-based. The details of other ingredients were not disclosed, owing to a confidentiality agreement inked with the industry. A hundred grams of these foods would provide 500-550 kcal energy and the vitamins and minerals as prescribed by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in India.
With an estimated 8.1 million children suffering from SAM, India is one of the countries worst affected by malnutrition. The product formula and process technology has been transferred to GCPL, New Delhi, for commercial production. The product would be produced in a ready-to-eat paste form, packed in pouch/tube and ready for pilot scale unit by June.
“The easily-digestible foods will provide enough energy, vitamins and proteins to SAM-sufferers as prescribed by UNICEF. All the foods will be in the ready-to-eat form for easy consumption by the affected children and cheap. They have been developed using peanut, potato and Bengal gram as its primary ingredients,” said Mishra, professor, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, IIT, Kharagpur.
“A pilot scale unit compliant with good manufacturing practices (GMP) and having a production capacity of 100kg per day is being installed for the demonstration of the product and technology. It is expected that the unit would be ready by June 2014,” he added. UNICEF’s website said, “Malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa. One in three malnourished children in the world lives in India.”
“In India, around 46 per cent of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47 per cent are underweight and at least 16 per cent are wasted. Many of these children are severely malnourished. Malnutrition in early childhood has serious, long-term consequences because it impedes motor, sensory, cognitive, social and emotional development,” it added.
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