There is a need for intelligent and integrated use of technology in supply and value chain, considering the malnutritionamong the children in the country, Gowrinandhan T Tonpe, Director, India & Lead SEA-R&D, Wrigley India
Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru said today.

Speaking at the 9th National Level Foodexplore’ 15 Symposium at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here, he said that one-third of the child population in India are suffering from malnutrition, which will result in people with low IQ in future. This, in turn will have a great impact on the national economy, he said and asked the students to put in best efforts in utilising the opportunities and shape their destiny.

Stating that the safe food was the right of every consumer, Tonpe said that developing processes and technology for production from farm level to dinner table was where food processing and engineering played a major role.

The symposium was organized by the students from the Department of Food Processing Engineering, Agricultural Engineering and Research Institute (AEC&RI) of the university.

Dr. M. Maheswaran, Director of Research, shared his experience about the utilization of carotene in curing night blindness which is an international project between agricultural centres including the University. Food engineers should work in making emerging products available to common man he said and expressed his desire of implementing new biological
projects like Nano encapsulation of zinc and iron, microbial evaluation of plant materials by keeping in mind
that concepts of food safety and security.