From defence to civilians with love

Several events have been organised by DFRL to mark its golden jubilee, it is also keen on showing people how its research would help them in day-to-day life, finds out T R Sathish Kumar

The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) in Mysore is gradually shedding its image as a military fortress and encouraging participation of the civilian society in its activities.

The DFRL is opening its premises for the public and allows them to see the progress made in processing and packaging food. This is the golden jubilee year for the premier defence food research institute and it is time to celebrate. And, it understands that celebration has no meaning if it stays aloof.

As part of the year-long celebrations, DFRL had organised an exhibition to showcase its achievements on the occasion of national technology day last week. People from all walks of life – especially students participated in large numbers and enjoyed the organisation’s hospitality.

P M Parameshwaraiah, senior technical officer, in-charge of the national technology day celebration, said the objective behind the exhibition was to make people aware of the latest developments in food technology and to showcase the achievements of DFRL. “We also want to bring technology nearer to the people. We want to market our technology to the needy and enterprising people. We want to show how technology can be used in day-to-day life, economically,” he said.

He said the technology was cost-effective and also simple. “Entrepreneurs can borrow technology and sell their products to us or market it privately. If they have any problem, they can get back to us anytime. We are always there to help them,” he said.

Parameshwaraiah said the retort process technology, which is used in ready to eat food, has been shared with 59 companies over the past 30 years. Some of them have been successful in capturing the market. “DFRL is also concerned about conservation of nature and hence has synthesised bio-degradable packaging materials,” he added.

Senior scientific assistant Sunil Kumar said the research of DFRL in developing various test kits related to food and detection of a few infections was incredible. “The fungicide, pesticide detection kit helps find out if food is contaminated or not, whether food is toxic or not. It also helps detect if the pesticides used by farmers during cultivation for a crop is within permissible limits,” he said.

He said the aloe vera low calorie juice developed by him showed good results on diabetic and hypertension patients. He said, after consumption of 200 ml of the juice everyday, for three months, there was considerable improvement in the health of people. “Although the juice has been developed for the use of defence personnel suffering due to ailments, the same can be consumed by civilians if private entrepreneurs take up production and market the product, he added.

He said he was an expert in developing several products from seabuckthorn, a type of fruit grown in Leh, Ladak and Jammu and Kashmir. “The fruit has several proven benefits like healing effects, so if the products are manufactured by industries, it will help the people a lot,” he hoped.