DFRL & NIPCCD

National Organizations: Defence Food Research Laboratory(DFRL) & National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)

1. National organizations concerned with Food and Nutrition DFRL & NIPCCD Ramya.H . II M.Sc. (F&N)

2. DFRL The  Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) is an  Indian   defence laboratory of the Defence Research & Development Organization  (DRDO ) Located in Mysore, Karnataka. conducts research and development of technologies and products in the area of food science and technology to cater the varied food challenges for the  Indian Armed Forces.

3. HISTORY 28th December 1961 under the aegis of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO ). The  Defence Research and Development Organisation  (DRDO) is an agency of the Republic of India, charged with the military's research and development, headquartered in New Delhi, India.

4. Vision To be a technological leader of excellence in food research and product development Mission Design, develop and evaluate; safe, nutritious and convenience food to meet the needs of Services and spin off to civil application Core competence Development of convenience and Ready-to-Eat (RTE) food products, implementation of packaging systems and processing of food, testing and evaluation of food.

5. AREAS OF WORK Research and development in food science and technology Studies in the development of convenience foods, preservation of foods, food safety, food packaging, and studies in the spoilage of foods and safety of processed foods Production and supply of processed foods on a limited scale to the Armed Forces and other bodies for national missions Toxicological, nutritional, and biochemical studies Development of pack rations, their quality assurance methods Preservation and packaging methods for long distance transportation of perishable products Evaluation of nutritional requirements of troops deployed under different climatic conditions

6. Issues related to food and DFRL’s contributions Normal preparation of Indian style food is extremely difficult at high altitude due to the lack of modern cooking appliances Food supplies to high altitude areas encounter several problems Terrain constraints limit land route and food supplies have to be air dropped This poses the danger of breakage of fragile packaging materials and loss of supplies at high altitude the efficiency of fuel is decreased by Inclement weather Rarefied atmosphere Low concentration of oxygen at high altitudes This in combination with low boiling point of water leads to delayed cooking .

7. Troops do not feel like eating and suffer from lack of appetite due to lack of sufficient oxygen and lowered sensory perception In addition to this, they also complain of indigestion on taking foods with higher fat content As a result troops posted at high altitude show preference towards fresh fruits and vegetables Dehydrated foods are also preferred by them due to the light in weight and longer shelf life

8. Taking all these aspects into consideration, DFRL has come up with Retort processed meals ready to eat ration (MRE) Precooked, dehydrated composite pack rations Emergency survival rations All packed in flexible polymeric film and their laminates

9. RATION The compo pack rations used by army are Full meal compo pack rations, which provide 4100 k cal Supplementary compo pack rations which provide 1430 k cal These encompass a wide variety of convenience food products developed at DFRL It consists of Ready-to-Eat (RTE) Ready-to-Reconstitute (RTR) and Ready-to-Cook kind of convenience foods

10. Ready to eat retort pouch processing technology Vegetable pulav , Plain Rice, Potato peas curry, Rajma curry, Dal fry, Paneer peas curry, Egg curry, Chicken curry, Chicken pulav , Vegetable noodle, No preservative chapaties . Other Ready to eat (RTE) products Preserved and flavoured chapathies , Short term preserved chapathies , Stuffed parothas , Appetizers, Chicken biscuits, Flax cookies, Flax munch, Coco cocoa delight bar, Composite tasty bar, Ergogenic bar, Flax oat tasty bar, High energy bar, Omega-3-rich bar, Protein rich mutton bar, Nutri food bar, Sweet & sour tasty bar.

11. Ready to reconstitute / ready to cook products Puff & serve chapathies , Instant coconut chutney mix, Instant cooking pulses and dal flakes, Instant cooking rice, Instant dal curries, Instant idly sambar mix, Instant soji halwa mix, Instant upma mix, Instant whole pulse and their curries, Variety of freeze dried fruit juice powders, Sea buckthorn based herbal tea, Flavoured Chapattis, Sea buckthorn based spiced squash, Flax chapathi mix, Flax sweet mix, Millet kheer mix, Millet chapathi mix, Millet roti mix, Millet dosa mix. Ready to drink juices and Beverages Tender coconut water, Aloe passion drink, Brahmi drink, Ash gourd juices, Alovera juice, Vegetable juices

12. RTE Foods In meals Ready-to-eat rations, the main constituents of rations are heated by hexamine fuel tablets The process is time consuming and cumbersome in field conditions Hence, simple device to heat the product at different field condition with reduced preparation time is preferable They have developed a Self-heating system called " Thermopack ” This is based on a multi step exothermic reaction This is found to be adequate to heat the product from ambient to 65 o C within 10-15 minutes

13. RTE Foods Under sub-zero condition, the system enables to heat the product from -10 °C to 40 ° C The system consists of Heater pad Treated water RTE food pouch Amenities such as needle, blade, paper plate, tissue paper, instruction manual etc

14. Survival Rations The army survival ration consists of two survival bars and two types of long life chikkis The ration weighs 500 g and delivers 2200 k cal The naval survival ration consists of two survival bars in a lot of 600 g to cater to one person for 3 days The survival bar of Navy is based on calorie rich products formulated from easily digestible carbohydrates It has a shelf life of 3 years They have also designed and developed emergency flying ration. This has survival bars weighing 330 g providing 1320 k cal. for 48 hours These survival rations can also be used in high altitude region

15. PROJECTS AND PRODUCTS Some of the technologies that have been transferred to entrepreneurs are : Retort processing in flexible pouches Mini combo pack ration Freeze dried foods Preservation of tender coconut water Preserved and flavoured chapaties Instant/Quick cooking foods Puff and serve chapaties Short term preserved chapaties Scrambled egg mix Combo pack ration Supplementary combo pack ration Cold stock drying technology Instant choley mix technology Minimally processed pre-cut vegetables Ethylene absorbed pad/scrubber development HT fruits

16. NIPCCD National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development Developed for voluntary action research, training and documentation in the overall domain of women empowerment and child development in  India. HISTORY Established in 1966 , the Institute has four Regional Centres ,  Guwahati  (1978),  Bangalore  (1980),  Lucknow  (1982), and  Indore  (2001).

17. VISION NIPCCD is to be seen as an Institute of Global repute in child rights, child protection and child development OBJECTIVES Develop and promote voluntary action in social development through training & capacity building of Government and Non-Government functionaries; Take a comprehensive view of child development through research and develop tools/design for supporting implementation of Government schemes and programmes and; Coordinate Meetings of MWCD with Stakeholders under different Schemes/ Programmes and Policies for furthering the objectives and provide feedback.

18. FUNCTIONS The major functions of the Institute are to: conduct, promote, sponsor and collaborate in research and evaluation studies in voluntary action and in child development ; review programmes for children in the light of the National Policy for children ; review voluntary action in social development ; identify problems and needs in the area of voluntary action and child development and suggest approaches to meet them ;

19. provide technical service facilities to government and voluntary organizations in the formulation and implementation of programmes of child development and voluntary action; establish liaison with research institutions, universities and other bodies engaged in studies and activities which relate to the development of the child and voluntary action, and undertake collaborative arrangements;

20. AREAS OF INTEREST Early childhood care and development. Health and nutrition of the young child and mothers. Infant and Young Child Feeding. Prevention of micronutrient malnutrition. Adolescent health, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Growth monitoring. Nutrition and Health Education. Child guidance and counselling . Early detection and prevention of childhood disabilities.

21. Learning and behavioural problems of children and parent education. Child rights and Child Protection. Juvenile justice. Women’s empowerment Holistic development of adolescent girls and family life education. Prevention of child marriage, female foeticide and female infanticide Counselling and support services for women in distress. Formation and management of self help groups. Prevention of trafficking of women and children. Prevention of Gender Based Violence.

22. NUTRITION RESOURCE PLATFORM (NRP) Initiative of the Child Development and Nutrition Bureau of the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India AIM to collect, collate and make available resources and materials on nutrition and child development to diverse stakeholders such as Nutrition & Child Care professionals, Frontline Workers like Anganwadi Workers, Policy Makers and Implementers, Academia, Grass Root Organizations as well as National and International Organization working in the field of Nutrition and Child Care. 

23. The NRP functions as part of Food and Nutrition Board ( FNB) with National Informatics Centre (NIC) providing technical, IT logistics and hosting support . It would also have linkages with important institutions of repute such National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Nutrition Foundation of India (NFI) and Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) and others. 

24. REFERENCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_Food_Research_Laboratory http://nipccd.nic.in/abt.htm http://nipccd.nic.in/nrp.htm