CFTRI to establish disaster mgmt centre

The city-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), which supplies food items to the victims of disasters, has decided to set up a Disaster Management Centre, to supply food items immediately after any calamity is reported.

CFTRI has been lending its hands, by supplying food items since many years. At present, the institution is preparing packed food items for the victims of the cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. The authorities have already sent food items to Odisha.

The institute had supplied food items to Kerala and Kodagu district in 2018, during floods.

CFTRI has decided to establish the centre to saend the food items to the affected regions, at short notice. The food will be prepared at the centre, using technology developed by CFTRI, round the year. The CFTRI has also decided to adopt a technology, which can produce food items with six months of shelf life, developed by the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar.

CFTRI director K S M S Raghava Rao said the institution has been sending food items to calamity-hit areas for the past several years.

The staff, as well as their family members, students and volunteers, are involved in preparing the food items. Now, it takes two to three days to prepare the food items. With the launch of the new centre, it is possible to send the necessary items within no time, he said.

The director said the institute has approached the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to join hands for the purpose. “We have several food preparing equipment and we need more resources. Thus, we have urged the CSIR to suppprt the cause,” he said.