New technology to increase shelf-life of fruits, veggies

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 6

The Indian Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (IHBT), a CSIR centre at Palampur, has introduced ‘lifelisation’ technology in the country that can help horticulturists of the state and also change the way people eat snacks in our country.

Director of the IHBT, Dr Sanjay Kumar, said it had been introduced in India for the first time by their institute. We have standardised the technology as per needs of the fruits and vegetable market in the country.

He said if this lifelisation technology was adopted, the shelf-life of many perishable fruits and vegetables could be increased upto six months.

Lifelisation technology

In the lifelisation technology, the fruits or vegetables are super cooled after which the water content in them gets converted into crystallised form. The crystallised water can be then removed from the fruit or vegetable. With water removed from the fruit and vegetable, the weight is reduced to just one to two per cent of original. However, the nutritional loss is just a maximum upto 10 per cent, Dr Sanjay Kumar said.

Even after removing the water content, the original taste of fruits and vegetables is retained. Since the weight is reduced to just 1 to 2 per cent. These are easy to carry, the shelf-life increases to about six months and the nutrition is retained, the Director of IHBT claimed.

He further said the beauty of the technology was that the fruits and vegetables processed through the lifelisation technology could also be restored to their original form in case someone intended to do so.

He said in the IHBT corn, apple, banana and some other fruits had been successfully processed through the lifelisation technology and the results desired had been achieved.

Its cost

Sanjay Kumar said a unit for processing 100 kg fruits at a time through lifelisation technology would be nearly Rs 2.5 crore. The IHBT was has developed a unit at its institute at Palampur. Any interested entrepreneur can come and see the working here. The IHBT was also willing to transfer the technology to any interested entrepreneur, Sanjay Kumar said.

Benefits

The IHBT scientists are of the view that if the technology is promoted by the government it can change the way people consume snacks in the country. Corns produced through the lifelisation technology at the centre in Palampur were experimentally distributed to people of the region and they were accepted very fast. Since no chemical processing and or additives are used in this technology, the fruits and other crops processed through this technology are healthy to eat. The authorities of the IHBT on Sunday showcased the lifelisation technology and other techniques developed by them before CM Jai Ram Thakur.