FDP on ‘Integrative Approach Towards Current Practices in Food Product Development’: FAHS, MRIIRS
Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, FAHS successfully organized a five-day Faculty Development Program recently. The inaugural session was chaired by Dr. Sanjay Srivastava (Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor MRIIRS), Dr. GL Khanna (Honorable PVC, MRIIRS), Dr. Moattar Raza Rizvi (Dean, FAHS), and Dr. Divya Sanghi (HoD, Nutrition & Dietetics) with a welcome note by Dr. Lakhvinder Kaur, Associate Professor and organizer of Faculty Development Program.
Dr. Chindi Vasudevappa, Vice-Chancellor NIFTEM was the Guest of Honor for the event. Dr. Chindi made the audience ponder upon the idea of food wastage especially in this pandemic situation and its effective utilization. Also, he focused on the need to go for local, as preached by our Hon’ble Prime Minister.
The first day sessions focused on the topics: ‘5-stage model of New Product Development’ and ‘Consumer acceptance is a key to success in NPD’ and were delivered by Dr. Ashutosh Upadhyay, Professor and Head at Department of Food Science & Technology, NIFTEM, and Dr. V.K Modi, Professor and Director at Amity Institute of Food Technology, Amity University, Noida.
Second Day: Session started with Dr. A. Madhavan (Director, Centre for Quality & Food Safety) delivering his thoughts. The key message by the speaker focused on how lack of safe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition which overburdens public health services, disrupts social and economic progress, and detracts from the quality of life.
Third Day: Speaker of the session was Ms. Suneeti Toteja, Scientist E, Food & Agriculture Department, Bureau of Indian Standards. Ms. Suneeti Toteja explained various roles of FSSAI like regulation and monitoring of food, specifying limits for heavy metals, additives, pesticides, laying down food labeling standards, laying down methods of sampling, prescribing procedure, and enforcement of quality control measures.
The session for the fourth day was taken up by Dr. Anil Panghal, Assistant Scientist at Department of Processing & Food Engineering College of Agricultural Technology, CCS, HAU, Dr. Anju Sehrawat Assistant Director, Directorate of Human Resource Management, CCS, HAU, and Dr. M.K Saluja Professor & Director, School of Agriculture, IGNOU. The sessions were concentrated on quality evaluation techniques in innovative processing and preservation technologies.
On the very last day, Dr. Bindu Aggarwal (Head- IILM Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation, IILM, Gurugram) fascinated the participants by elaborating on the role of an entrepreneur and the risk involved while setting up a start-up. The takeaway from this was that trusting oneself is important for any entrepreneur to start their journey.
The valedictory event was concluded by the Honorable PVC MRIIRS, Dr. GL Khanna. He addressed all the participants and thanked all the esteemed speakers of the FDP. There were a total of 114 participants from prestigious organizations across the country. The sessions were well coordinated by Ms. Divya Puri and Dr. Sneha Nair (Convenors of FDP), Ms. Ankita Sharma (Organizing Secretary), Dr. Gurseen Kaur, and Dr. Madhvi Awasthi (Members of Organizing Team).