COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has bagged a production process patent for a ‘ready-to-cook Cumbu mix and food’ developed by Prof R Kailappan using a new technology.“Using this patented technology, the pearl millet can be processed and packaged without any preservative,” said Kailappan, who works in the Department of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering at the university.What set the professor into action was the fact that the traditional method of preparing food using pearl millet as a main ingredient is cumbersome which led to the healthy millet vanishing from the kitchen shelf. In a ready-to-cook format, it can be popularised in households. The cooked meal would retain the same taste and nutritional value, which one gets when the Cumbu is cooked in the traditional way.In fact, prior to 1990, the pearl millet was one of the widely used food grains by peasants and farm hands in south India. The availability of rice and lifestyle changes brought doom for the pearl millet.“For preparing a healthy food, the ready-to-cook Cumbu mix has to be mixed with water and cooked as recommended. No washing or pre-cooking process is needed. The ready-to-cook mix can be stored for 15 to 20 days at normal room temperature,” said Kailappan.The department had applied for patenting the technology in 2006. “On December 23 last year, the application was reviewed at the IPR office in Chennai and the patent was awarded. It has applied for three more patents including two in Delhi,” he added.According to TNAU Vice Chancellor P Murugesa Boopathi, this is the ninth patent the university has obtained. “We had applied for patenting 31 products and technologies. We hope to get more such patents,” he said. S Santhana Bosu, Dean (Agricultural Engineering), TNAU said, “Under adverse storage conditions, the oil with higher level of unsaturation lowers the shelf-life of processed pearl millet grain due to rancidity. This has been effectively addressed by this new technology.”
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