Food Industry Centre at PAU renamed as Food Industry Business Incubation Centre

Ludhiana, June 16, 2017: The Food Industry Centre at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has been renamed as Food Industry Business Incubation Centre. This was informed by the Registrar of PAU, Dr R.S.Sidhu.

Giving details, Dr Poonam A. Sachdev, Head, Department of Food Science and Technology, PAU, said the Centre was established in the department in June 2015 with the technical guidance of the Ohio State University, USA. It was set-up with the objective of providing incubation facilities to the food industry, young entrepreneurs and farmers; and developing linkages among them for the development of food processing industry in the region, she added. The short courses and the trainings are also being conducted for the development of entrepreneurship skills among rural youth, farm women, budding entrepreneurs, NGOs, self help groups; and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of food industry operations, she informed.

Elaborating, Dr Sachdev said the Centre also conducts research and upscale technologies for processing and value addition of agricultural produce as desired by various organizations and stakeholders. Seven micro and small entrepreneurs/growers have benefitted by availing incubational facilities available in this Centre, she disclosed. Various growers of tomato, guava, plum, turmeric, lime, sugarcane and onion have also prepared their products in the Centre for commercial purposes, she added.

Recently, a turmeric grower, Navdeep Bali and his partner, Gursharan Singh, also the owner of GB Foods, processed 2.5 tonnes of turmeric into pickle in the Centre. Other 16 technologies developed and up-scaled in the Centre have been transferred to different stakeholders for commercialization, she told. Dr Sachdev said the Centre covers entire range of food processing with special emphasis on fruits, vegetables and grain based products. Facilities available in the Centre are minimal processing techniques, heat preservation techniques, cold preservation, drying and dehydration, juices and beverages, canning, extrusion processing and soy milk processing, she added. Other facilities are available under the Department of Processing and Food Engineering, she said. These include modified atmosphere packaging and storage; milling of cereals, pulses and oil seeds; processing of turmeric and chili powder; and extraction of essential oils, she added.