The real food-tech - Indian scientists develop a healthy ice cream

We have sent a satellite to Mars, made a Light Combat Aircraft from scratch, and even found affordable cures to diseases. Now, a healthy ice cream made from vegetarian sources has also been turned into reality. In a recent development in food technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) constituent Laboratory, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR-CFTRI) Mysuru, in association with M/s Oleome Biosolutions, Bengaluru and M/s Dairy Classic Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd., has developed ‘Nutrice’.

Nutrice cream is an omega-3- and vitamin-E-enriched frozen nutritional dessert from vegetarian sources. Dietary supplementation of omega-3 (ω-3) fats, which are the Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA), have been reported to have beneficial health functions including brain development in children and good health in elderly population. According to the release by the Ministry of Science and Technology, this product will provide the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of omega-3 for children in one serving.

Largely, people’s food habits revolve around diverse food sources and preparations to address the different nutritional requirements.

Using the knowledge of traditional Indian food habits, CSIR-CFTRI has developed a diverse array of food products such as Nutri-chikki incorporated with spirulina, rice mix, high protein rusk, energy food, nutri-sprrinkle, sesame paste, and fortified mango bar etc., so as to address the varying nutritional requirements of people.

The products are analysed for their nutritional composition and other parameters such as sensory, shelf-life, packaging, microbial safety, etc.