With focus on millets in view of International Year of Millets-2023, the CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysuru, on Thursday released eight new products based on millets at the ongoing ‘One Week One Lab’, a CSIR campaign, on the campus here.
The products that were launched include instant finger millet upma mix, little millet puttu podi, ragi-based ready-to-eat malted weaning food, finger millet semolina, instant finger millet rava idli mix, instant finger millet khichdi dal, instant finger millet halva, and ragi-based malt hydrolysate.
As finger millet grains are an excellent source of various nutrients and many health-promoting components such as dietary fibre, minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals that include phenolic compounds and have several potential health benefits, scientists at the CFTRI developed the products with the objective of maximising use of finger millets.
“The use of millets as food is limited mainly due to lack of innovative millet processing technologies at commercial scale that can be used to feed large populations in urban areas. In recent years, due to increased awareness, finger millet-based products are given more emphasis in diet,” according to the scientists.
The CFTRI believes that the demand for healthy and nutritious foods is expected to increase due to increasing cases of lifestyle diseases. Therefore, it developed instant and ready-to-eat millet products, including finger millet upma mix that provides a healthier alternative to existing products and an opportunity to launch new products in the health and wellness segment, a note said here.
According to CFTRI, ready-to-eat segment share is expected to grow around 20-25% over the next five years. The millets are now being used for food due its nutritive value and health benefits. Thus, the finger millet instant rava idli mix will attract demand in the market besides finger millet instant Kesari halwa mix.
Other products are puttu, a dish native to South Indian States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and parts of Karnataka. Puttu is usually a breakfast dish served hot with either sweet side dishes such as palm sugar or banana, or savoury with chana masala, chutney or meat curries. The little millet puttu podi is one of the products developed by the institute, the note said.
According to CFTRI, weaning food is a semi-solid food given to an infant in an age group of 6 months to 2-3 years. Weaning foods are generally texture modifications of adult foods to make them easily digestible and promote healthy growth of a child. “Ragi is one of the important millets which gains prominence because of its nutritional significance. It is the richest source of calcium among the cereals and exhibits excellent malting characteristics. Malting generally improves the taste and the quality of the nutrients of a product. Supplementing malted ragi with malted legume generally increases both the quantity and quality of the proteins of the final product,” the note explained.
CFTRI has standardised the technology and general methods of preparation of ready-to-eat malted weaning food.
A session on millets was addressed by former CFTRI director K.S.M.S. Raghava Rao and Rekha Singhal, professor, ICT Research Council chairperson, CSIR-CFTRI. CFTRI director Sridevi Annapurna Singh presided.
