BARC develops preservative-free ready meals

Preservative-free, ready-to-eat food will soon be a reality. Scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) have developed a technology to make food items consumable for a longer period of time, while retaining nutritional value.

While a number of ready-to-eat options are available in India already, they are laden with preservatives and tend to lose their nutritional value and taste due to the method through which they are processed, which is by exposure to heat. BARC scientists use irradiation technology. Products are treated under gama rays at very low temperatures — minus 40 degrees to prepare frozen food.

They have transferred this technology to a meal manufacturing company that will soon launch ready-to-eat items such as chicken tikka.

Dr Archana Joshi, Scientific Officer at BARC, says, "We have used this technology with raw products such as ginger, semolina and pulses. When food is treated at low temperatures under gamma rays, it retains its nutritional value and prevents the growth of microbes."

The research centre has also been irradiating mangoes to increase their life and increase export. "Indian mangoes are very popular in other countries, but carry insects. The irradiation process helps kill them," said Dr Joshi. This year itself, BARC has irradiated 1,150 tonnes of mangoes.

This is one of the many innovations by Indian research institutes and research and development (R&D) centres currently on display inside the Parliament as part of the 'Innovations in Science' exhibition.