Whenever I introduce myself as a meals technologist, the overall response is, “Oh, so you paintings at a resort?” It hurts to look at that as Indians, coming from a land rich in soil and assets, we are ignorant approximately the potentialities of such a diverse area. My adventure in this area started with a B.Tech degree in Food Technology that combines engineering with microbiology.
Being a relatively new location, the majority joined the path, looking forward to it being less complicated to pursue than other courses. However, we college students had our noses to the grindstone via semesters of merely mechanical subjects, which include the concept of machines, heat and mass transfer, refrigeration and cold chain, and unit operations in food processing. In addition to theory training, we had been given hands-on practice in dealing with commercial machines, along with fermentation tanks, orifice and venturi meters, ribbon blenders, spray driers, and so forth, in a laboratory set-up. I selected to foremost on Food Process Equipment and Design. With this training, I could lay out an automatic multipurpose peeler that could peel spherical-shaped culmination and vegetables like apples and beetroot more efficiently, with much less wastage.
Despite providing a huge spectrum of possibilities, our instructors rarely appeared privy to the scope of food technology. Girls have been generally counseled to pursue exceptional warranty jobs that involve beginning-to-end first-rate assessments of merchandise. On the other hand, boys have been encouraged to pursue a profession in the field of enterprise audits. Unlike the excellent guarantee sphere, these jobs involve common tours and inconsistent timings, and therefore seemed to be mistaken for women.
GIRLS WERE ADVISED TO PURSUE QUALITY ASSURANCE JOBS, WHICH INVOLVED START-TO-END QUALITY CHECKS OF PRODUCTS. ON THE OTHER HAND, BOYS WERE ENCOURAGED TO PURSUE A CAREER IN the FOOD INDUSTRY AUDITS.
Nevertheless, engaging in audits of the food industry has become most attractive to me. To do it, one desires to stay in par with the situation, the science behind every manner, and any new rules which can be drafted or released via the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). It is an area from which you’ll be able to, without problems, department out into the metals industry’s specific sectors. It can expose one to all factors of its functioning, from farm to fork. Not buckling under the discouragement I acquired (humans informed me it became a tough area for women to attain achievement), I decided to pursue this profession direction after graduation.
It changed simultaneously as I changed into attending numerous job interviews, and I stumbled upon the start-up enterprise called Grow Fit. The company is led by Vinay Bharadwaj, a neurosurgeon with an alternative take on the food enterprise. He recommends to his sufferers a ketogenic food regimen or the high-fat-protein diet for weight loss.
Where does the food era fit in within all this? It gives us techniques to cope with the changing meal demands of society. The book Accelerating New Food Product Design and Development by using Beckley et al. discusses the transition of human diets from our ancestors’ hunter-gatherer diets to the more famous keto weight-reduction plan of the modern-day instances with the help of food generation. The food plan of hunter-gatherers turned into a protein-fat-rich wealthy and released energy slowly. But as generations superior, especially during World Wars I and II, preserving food became easier, and food industries grew to become in the direction of advertising storable carbohydrate-rich food to serve our instant pangs of starvation. But unlike food excessive in fat and proteins, an excessive-carb weight loss plan releases energy a good deal quicker, resulting in fluctuating energy levels throughout the day.
Food rich in sugar and carbohydrates is less complicated to maintain as there may be less scaling up the loss. Protein-fats meals are simply the other. Developing a product high in protein and low in carbohydrates might, therefore, contain the synergism of each science and era.
During my time at Grow Fit, we developed a new keto-weight loss plan product, a smoothie mix designed to aid weight loss. We introduced our product, chicory root extracts, also known as inulin, which functions as a prebiotic. But by doing so, we observed that inulin absorbed water and, in turn, decreased the shelf life of the product. We now had to lay out a packaging that could make its shelf life longer. We had to cater to each food aspect while keeping in mind certain questions: What are the systems, residences, and shelf-lives of the proteins and fats used? What is the most inexpensive and maximum efficient manner to manner it? Would the product require any packaging? Would the packaging react with the product? What could FSSAI/CODEX guidelines be wished?
UNLIKE THE FIELD OF QUALITY ASSURANCE, FOOD AUDITING JOBS INVOLVE FREQUENT TRAVEL AND INCONSISTENT TIMINGS, AND HENCE ARE PERCEIVED TO BE UNSUITABLE FOR GIRLS.
For a start-up organization like Grow Fit, manufacturing a product that was excessive in proteins and fats, with an omega-6 and omega-3 ratio of 4:1, and sourcing extracts that function as carb-blockers to lessen insulin spikes became a big venture. We commenced by formulating merchandise that had the least effect on sugar levels in the human body. By accomplishing glucometer checks – a take a look at for sugar levels in the blood – we were able to determine the right mixture of proteins and fats required to maintain hunger levels in the study.
Since our merchandise is oriented closer to weight loss and for clients with specific necessities, we had to ensure that every component goes into every packet in a distinctive ratio. In this situation, the purpose becomes to make a healthful smoothie with the level of sweetness, color, consistency, and ratio of our useful elements being consistent in every bottle. The very last task was to broaden the flavor and texture appropriate to the purchasers by using natural sweeteners and emulsifiers. To nail the proper stability, we performed rigorous rounds of olfactory node tests (which entail a digital nose, like a tool to detect odors) and viscometric tests (which assist in measuring the consistency of a liquid using an instrument known as the viscometer). Once the product’s research and development method had been tested and standardized, we commenced concentrating our efforts on upscaling or increasing manufacturing to a larger scale.
Development and manufacturing products such as this smoothie require the talents of a trained food technologist. Ratios of ingredients are crucial in eating regimen protocols, and these frequently get deviated from while in the hands of untrained experts. For instance, our high-fat product required a specialized grinder known as a cone-ball grinder, which bests a skilled character can handle. Similarly, a food technologist has excellent expertise in approximately one of a specific type of food and can pair it with mechanisms or strategies that reduce manual labor.
Whether producing a ketogenic product or draft beer, it’s miles of technology and technology that bring a product together. New meal product designs are constantly generated, but keeping the product exceptionally consistent is a project. Take the case of Kombucha or tea mushroom, a diffusion of fermented, lightly bubbling, sweetened black or green tea with intended fitness advantages. It is a 1000000000-greenback enterprise within the U.S.A. Kombucha has had gradual access within the Indian market because of the lack of technical expertise in producing a constant product without mildew growth or generation of higher doses of the deadly alcohol ‘methanol’ that is formed through fermentation when produced in large quantities.
From my enjoy, I trust the radical food begin-up subculture is an excellent beginning for a B.Tech Food Technology graduate because it facilitates one to find out their interests. It helped me get down and grimy with fermentation, new food product layout, sourcing or producing novel components, food device designing, or consultations to call some. The opportunities to analyze are endless and pretty interlinked, much like the food internet.
