Mysuru: Mysore based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) has prepared nearly one lakh meals ( nearly 25 Tonnes) for distribution in cyclone Fani hit areas of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Besides this, the CFTRI employees, scientists and students are working round the clock since Friday evening. Employees’ family members including their children and Government Railway Police personnel and a few railway employees are involved in voluntary service to cater the demands. The first batch of 20,000 packs of meals (5 tonnes of food) was sent on Sunday.
To meet the demand, more than 800 people including 200 CFTRI employees and equal number of students are working in two shifts. The first consignment is expected to be sent by Monday morning. Though 25 tonnes of food materials will be sent to Odisha it will cater to adults only and no food for infants has been prepared.
The food materials which will be sent to Odisha will include 20,000 chapatis, ready to eat upma, tomato chatni, Imbli poha, nutri biscuits and rusks in its first consignment.
Speaking to Newskarnataka, KSMS Raghavarao, Director of Central Food Technological Research and Institute (CFTRI) said “On Friday afternoon, after the devastating cyclone Fani hit Odisha, we received a call from CSR whether we could cater food to the victims. As we are equipped to provided food during such emergencies and done it many times in the past, I agreed for the same and immediately called an emergency meeting. We had also instructed HR department to suspend all the classes for students so that they could help and participate in preparing food for the flood victims. After procuring raw materials we started the process to preparing food on Friday itself. We had managed to prepare 5 tonnes of food and by Monday evening we should be ready to provide 25 tonnes of food which would cater to almost 10 percent of people who have been affected by Cyclone Fani. Apart from Chapatis, all the items prepared will be inhouse, prepared at CFTRI”.
Rao said that during the floods at Kodagu, they had dispatched 50,000 meals. Talking about the shelf life for the food, he said that the shelf life of Tomato Chatni is nearly two months, while that of Upma and Poha would be nearly 20 days”. He also mentioned that process of Imbli Poha and Upma have been further simplified by just mixing it with hot water it was ready to eat. The tomato chatni is an accompanient for not only chapati but also for rice.
Pramila, who is doing her PhD at CFTRI and is involved in the food preparation said “It gives us great satisfaction to volunteer and help people in distress”
