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Tired of going to the local market and trudging through the slush to shop for your daily dose of protein? How about a pack of frozen chicken from your friendly neighbourhood grocery store? Whether it is frozen peas, or heat-and-eat parathas or navratan kormas, they are a hit with people who are short of time and deep of pocket.
But it’s not easy to make these foodstuffs available in packaged form and make sure that they remain fresh for months after production. The job calls for the use of food technology. And with the growing popularity of packaged food all over the world, food technologists are playing an increasingly important role in all our lives.
So what is food technology all about? It’s about converting foodstuff ? wheat, rice, dairy products, meat or chicken ? into an edible or semi-edible form and keeping it that way for a long period. Food technologists slog it out in research labs or on production lines to develop new products, test existing ones, and control and enhance food quality. Naturally, technological innovations in the field have led to a growing demand for trained workers.
Any food technology course ? you can do a bachelors degree and go on to study for an MSc ? normally consists of two major parts: food chemistry and food technology. The latter teaches you the preservation of fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, poultry, dairy, cereals and their packaging. Food chemistry teaches you the composition of food articles.
| Growth all the way |
G.A. Khan, Managing Director
of Mother Dairy, speaks to Prithvijit Mitra |
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Q: How has the packaged and processed food sector been doing over the
last few years?
A: It has seen unprecedented growth. In the last three years, the sale
of packaged milk and milk products has grown by over 25 per cent in our country.
There has been a similar rise in the demand for fruit juices, potato chips, instant
noodles etc. New products have flooded the market and more will come, which is
good news for the sector.
Q: Have job opportunities
for food technologists seen a rise as well?
A: There are more jobs now at all levels. Innovations are taking place,
leading to more opportunities for research and development. Food technologists
have a key role to play in this entire transformation and growth. It is their
technical inputs that will determine how fast the industry grows and whether the
growth is sustained.
Q: Do you see this growth continuing in the years to come?
A: The demand for packaged food will not go down as food habits in our
country have changed for good. But this industry is extremely capital-intensive
so finances are very important. The number of jobs might gradually dwindle but
that should not happen in the near
future.
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It is close to chemical engineering. In fact, once upon a time, food technology used to be offered as a specialisation in chemical engineering," says Hiranmay Gangopadhyay, head of the department of food technology and biochemical engineering, Jadavpur University. The course also includes microbiology.
The food processing industry is the major employer of food technologists at the moment. These include companies manufacturing soft drinks, beer, dairy products and fruit and vegetable processing units. You can also look out for jobs in hotels, confectionery companies, catering establishments and packaging industries. R&D labs employ food technologists too in order to improve the yield, flavour and nutritive value of packaged foods.
Today, packaged food has revolutionised the food habits of the people in our country. In fact, there has been a 400 per cent rise in the consumption of packaged food in India over the last three years.
Evolving field
Worldwide, food technology is now a fast evolving field where technology is playing an increasingly important role. For instance, minimally-processed vegetables are now popular all over the world. It is a state-of-the-art technology by which a variety of tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate vegetables can be made available in trimmed and cut forms and packed so as to retain fresh or almost fresh sensory attributes. The minimally-processed vegetables are microbiologically safe, besides being rich in ascorbic acid, says Utpal Ray Chaudhury, former head of the department, food technology, Jadavpur University.
Food technologists are also using new and improved packaging material these days to enhance the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Flexible packaging materials such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene are two of the most popular ones being used worldwide. The shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables, such as mango, tomato, banana and papaya go up by two to three weeks when packed in such ethylene films.
With so much happening in the field, job prospects are bright for young food technologists. Multinationals like Coke, Pepsi, Britannia, ITC, Nestle and HLL appoint them for product development, research and development and production. Starting salaries could be as high as Rs 30,000 in multinationals, around Rs 20,000 in the big Indian firms and between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 in smaller companies.
Courses offered at
Jadavpur University, Calcutta
University Department of Chemical Technology, Mumbai
Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore
Hardcourt Butler Technological Research Institute, Kanpur
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur
Techno Engineering College, Calcutta
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