You don’t actually think about "ready to eat" or "heat and eat" foods; you just wolf them down with little thought to the science behind them that matches the speed of our times.Yet this remarkable technology, retort pouch processing, comes from a defence laboratory in a distant Mysore suburb. The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) essentially does research to meet the food needs of troops in inhospitable terrain like the Siachen area or the Rajasthan desert. Of late, DFRL, like other government institutions, has realised the commercial potential of its work. It has since been patenting its innovations and transferring the technology to entrepreneurs.
So, what is retort pouch processing? It is the treating of your alu chholey or fish curry in "special kind of multilayered laminate or polymeric films to achieve sterility", says Dr Jayaraman, DFRL’s officiating director. Food thus sealed has a shelf life of nearly a year and can be consumed straight or dipped in hot water for a couple of minutes and served warm, he adds.
DFRL is also now into the third generation of instant food technology, where you just have to add hot water to reconstitute food. The related hurdle-technology helps preserve cut vegetables and fruits. Here, concentrated sugar, salt and humidity are used as hurdles to prevent the growth of microbes.
In this season of truant rain, DFRL’s coolest innovations must be its tender coconut preservation technology and packaging of Leh Berry juice. The palm drink is preserved in flexible polymeric pouches and aluminium cans. The product has a shelf life of six months, which can rise by three months if refrigerated.
Genghis Khan, the Mongol conqueror, is said to have eaten seabuckthorn fruit for stamina and to prevent altitude sickness. The Leh Berry juice carries its manifold medicinal benefits and is primarily a product of DFRL’s sister lab, Field Research Laboratory (FRL), but DFRL has worked on the packaging of the juice and is now working on a Diet Leh Berry for diabetics.
