New Delhi, June 20 (KNN) National Institute of Food and Technology (NIFTEM), a premier institution under aegis of Ministry of Food Processing Industries, has the potential to become the Harvard of the food processing technology and management sector, said Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Despite being at an infant stage, university has already been ranked 50th out of 3007 universities in India, she added.

Speaking at the 6th Annual Meeting of NIFTEM-Industry Forum, Badal directed NIFTEM to explore how it can come up with ‘Brand NIFTEM’ which is healthier, fresher and cheaper.

Further, she added that the food testing lab should become a nodal lab for Food Safety Standards Authority of India and also both domestic and international companies to rely on for testing of their products.

NIFTEM should become the brand of the healthiest version of the processed food that they have to offer, Badal added.

Also, Ministry along with NIFTEM has explored how NIFTEM can open up its incubation centers for new entrepreneurs where they can try out new things while also providing them a market by opening at least 2 outlets- one at NIFTEM and one in the Ministry premises, she pointed.

The Minister invited suggestions from food processing industry on how to best utilize the facilities at NIFTEM and make them beneficial to all stakeholders.

The Minister invited the industry gathering to partner with NIFTEM and evolve as a guide to help the Ministry form policies for the food processing sector.

Secretary of Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Jagdish Prasad Meena said that the Industry needs to do much more and establish itself as creator and not just imitator of foreign products adding that the industry must come out with products that are globally competitive.

For this great attention needs to be paid to research and development (R&D) and quality certifications to avoid rejection of exports by foreign countries, he added.

On that note he invited the industry to integrate itself with the R&D facilities that NIFTEM offers. 

The Secretary also called for development of protocols for storage of food crops in cold storages. He highlighted that even specialized multi product cold storages in the country are being used as common cold storage whereas each food crop requires its own standards of storage.

The 6th meeting of NIFTEM Industry Forum was aimed at strengthening Industry-NIFTEM collaboration.

Besides, the meeting aimed to identify challenges being faced by the Indian Food Industry, to bridge industrial and academic gap by industry oriented research projects, to promote science & technology collaboration based on innovation by developing new technologies, new product development, refine exciting technological infrastructure which can be commercialized in future for the development of food processing sector.