CII’s Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence recently hosted the “National Food Processing Conclave 2022” with the focus on millets.
With growing consumer focus on health, nutrition has become a key trend shaping the food processing sector’s future. Keeping in view the shift, the food processing companies in India have already shifted their focus to enable access to nutrition with more prominence on lowering nutrients of concern, improving micronutrient access through fortification, enabling protein intake through innovative products and so on.
Speaking about opportunities for the industry, Minhaj Alam, Additional Secretary, MoFPI, mentioned, “Food requirement is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, which will provide a lot of opportunity for industry innovations in food processing sector to meet demand- supply gap.”
Mayank Jalan, Co-chairman, CII National Committee on Food Processing Industries & CMD, Keventer Agro said that innovations in food technology were critical to the growth and development of the food processing sector as they supported and enabled the various components of the food value chain from the farm to the fork.
In the segment on innovation, the Conclave witnessed participation of the next generation food companies, which included Wholsum Foods, Sresta Organics, Good Dot Enterprises, Sattviko (Rays Culinary Delights Pvt. Limited).
Shubha Thakur, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, in her keynote address stressed, “The Government is keen to facilitate the solutions for current challenges in processing of millets along with R&D and innovation.” Piruz Khambatta, Chairman & Managing Director, Rasna Pvt Ltd, pointed out, “It is critical to continue increasing the production of millets while simultaneously mainstreaming it to the consumption basket and it is here that the role of industry comes in.”
