NEW GENERATION NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENERS-WHAT IS THE FATE OF SUGAR?

The non-nutritive sweetener market can never be the same after the run away success of Stevia sugars which are to day marketed as a natural low calorie/ no calorie sweetener globally. The dominance of synthetic sweeteners like Aspartame till the arrival of Stevia offered no choice to consumers with diabetes or those wanting to cut down on calories in their diet but Stevia changed all that and to day it is overwhelmingly being accepted by the consumer with least reservation. Probably attraction to every thing that is natural by the present day consumer society is pulling in more and players intent to develop sweeteners like Stevia. Recent arrival of Monk fruit sugar being made popular among low calories adherents is another attempt to tap this rich market. Like Stevia which has complex steviosides that contribute to sweetness, Monk fruit contains migrosides which have 300 times the sweetening power compared to sucrose. Hot on the heels are others like sweeteners made from the fruits of Oubli grown in West Africa. Here is a take on this emerging development which may have far reaching future implications in the low calorie sweetener market. 

Hot on the heels of the stevia and monk fruit revolution is asweetener derived from the West African fruit of the climbing plant Oubli, Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon. Oubli has been long recognized by natives of the Gabon Republic, a sovereign state on the west coast of Central Africa, and Cameroon for its sweetness. The sweet compound is called brazzein, and is an extracellular protein found in the pulp surrounding the seeds of the berry. First isolated as an enzyme by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in 1994, the super-sweet protein is now expressed in bacteria in order to lower the cost of production and eliminate the need for farming. After sequencing the DNA that codes for brazzein, researchers could use bacteria as little cellular factories that churn out the highly sweet protein. The newly formulated final product will be marketed under the name Cweet by Natur Research Ingredients, Los Angeles. Boasting a sweetening power 1,000 times that of sucrose, Cweet is promoted as a natural, easily dissolved and heat-stable sweetener that leaves no aftertaste. Stability at high temperatures makes the sweetener appropriate for baked applications as well as beverages. Since it's a protein, it weighs in at 4 calories per gram, but with a 1,000:1 replacement value for sucrose, it is essentially zero calories. 

How far this sweetener will compete with established non-sugar sweeteners is is matter of speculation right now though it does have the potential to become a significant player provided the plant is taken up for cultivation in an organized way. The economics also can pose challenge and the ultimate commercial viability will very much depend on the consumer cost. Though the process of extracting the sweet fraction is rather simple as it is concentrated in the pulp portion that surrounds the berry, still as it becomes popular questions regarding the safety of the product for long term use in humans are bound to be raised. The biggest advantage is that it is the most intense sweetener known so far with a 1 to 1000 sweetness ratio compared to sucrose though it cannot be categorized as a zero calorie sweetener in the strict sense as it does yield about calories per gm but as the quantity required to impart required sweetness in food products is so minuscule that it will not contribute any significant calories to the products. It is necessary that the quest for unveiling many such low calorie sweeteners from natural sources with as high sweetness intensity as possible be continued since sugar cane cultivation is increasingly becoming unsustainable and the population requiring sugarless products for managing obesity and diabetes is expanding rapidly.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

RURAL HEALTH CARE-THE AMUL MODEL

Women and child development is a crucial area where Government of India has invested and continues to invest heavily though results at the ground level is barely perceptible. One of the major reasons for this lackluster development is lack of commitment on the part of the employees who are on the pay roll of the government to the cause, with the result there are cases of gross abuse of the system and the activity is present only on paper in most of the rural places in the country. Compare this with the program  of an NGO in Gujarat, initiated and supported by the redoubtable Amul cooperative of Anand that covers almost two million people and is a beacon of hope for half a million villages across the country. The enthusiasm of women and rural workers who operate the program is infectious and the country would have been much better of if thousands of NGOs working in different parts of the country had taken a leaf out of the this program in Gujarat state. Here is a tribute to the trio of Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr Kurien and Mr Dalaya, all not present now to see their vision come true, who were the founding fathers of India's much acclaimed white revolution for their vision and humane approach to the problems of rural India.    

"The premises of the Tribhuvandas Foundation (TF), a charitable organisation in Anand, Gujarat, are a hive of activity. In an open hall, surrounded by greenery, women are taking yoga and meditation classes to recover from post-natal issues. Mothers have come to pick up their infants after the morning session at the crèche. Expecting mothers are being checked and counseled by doctors. The foundation is an Amul initiative that provides healthcare to women and children in the villages of Kheda and Anand districts. "The most unique aspect of this programme is that it trains women to be self-reliant in dealing with healthcare issues in their villages," says Dr Viren Doshi, CEO of TF.There are two theories on how the foundation started. One version is that a moving statement made by a woman sowed its seeds; she wished she was born a cow because only then she would get the medical facilities provided by the dairy cooperative. "This inspired Tribhuvandas Patel to start TF. He was supported by Dr Kurien and HM Dalaya, who are considered with Patel the three pillars of the Amul revolution.  Another version is that when Dr Rajendra Prasad visited the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union ltd, well-known for fueling the white revolution, he is said to have remarked with amazement on seeing the mobile dispensary that he was amazed to see such facilities for livestock which are not available elsewhere for human beings. No matter, whichever version is true, today it touches the life of 16 to 19 lakh people in Gujarat, mainly women," Dr Doshi says. When Patel retired from the chairmanship Of KDCMPU, he was presented with a purse of six hundred thousand rupees, by the members of the village cooperatives—one rupee per member being the contribution. He used this fund with what he received as part of The Ramon Magsaysay Award, to start the Tribhuvandas Foundation for women and children. TF was registered as a public charitable trust in 1975 and started activities in 1980, with grants from National Dairy Development Board, Amul and UNICEF, and later from the Overseas Development Administration. It is now a Community health organisation, working mainly on reproductive and child health. "When TF started work, it was difficult to find qualified human resources in the dairy cooperative's area of operation. TF adopted the model of training women volunteers from the community to provide basic healthcare in the villages. Thus, it is a need-based program for villages run by the villagers themselves," explains Dr Doshi. The programme is dependent on three sets of people: the mobile medical core team of professional nurses and midwives backed by doctors, village health workers, who are trained for providing basic medical help, and village infant workers. The workers are trained to offer primary health care and health education door-to-door, in groups and at the Dairy Co-operative Societies Centres".

Some how India, as a country never realized the power of women and their immense talent and what the Tribhuvandas Foundation(TF) has done is to recognize this simple truth enabling them to empower the rural women to manage their own affairs with guidance, training and supportive efforts. It is conceded that Amul had the necessary infrastructure of health care for millions of milch animals belonging to the rural families and what it did was to augment the infrastructure with medical and paramedical personnel specialized in human development. Still what one can see to day in those villages where TP is operating presents a picture of self reliance which Mahatma Gandhi had envisioned for the country. If cooperative sector can do this why not the private industry which has the resources and wherewithal to replicate Amul's  rural development initiative? Industry bodies like FCCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and others must reconsider their policies on social front and follow the Amul route of rural development for creating a prosperous India by investing a portion of their corporate profits.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

GARBAGE DISPOSAL-NEW INITIATIVES IN CHENNAI

Urban lives in India face the threat of overwhelming garbage accumulation near their dwelling places as most civic bodies do not have functional processing facilities for the huge waste generated day in and day out. While every citizen has a right to get the much needed civic services in return for the taxes paid by him, it is a matter of shame that these "receipts" are misused and mismanaged leading to a situation where the citizens are left to fend for himself whether it is water, power, roads, parking lots, parks or noise pollution or waste clearance. The audacity of the civic body in raising conservancy charges for those generating garbage is really breath taking as Chennai is a city where the all pervasive Coovum river stink hits any visitor who lands there! As the tax payers there are vigorously protesting this arbitrary move by the civic body, they are being asked to set up their own processing facility investing their funds! What a city! Here is a take on this latest development in Chennai and the on-going tussle between the tax payers and the civic body on the garbage issue.  

"Commercial establishments in the city are likely to set up their own bio-gas plants for processing their food waste.The Chennai Corporation, at a meeting in Ripon Buildings with representatives of hotels, marriage halls and other commercial food business operators asked the traders to commission decentralised waste processing facility based on a technology of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The meeting was organised to resolve a deadlock on the issue of conservancy charges in Chennai. At the meeting, Corporation officials indicated that new conservancy charges levied on these establishments, which had been fiercely opposed by them, would be reduced if the traders' association commissioned their own plants based on such proven technology. A number of food-business operators, including large hotels and marriage halls, had been asked to pay more conservancy charges by the Chennai Corporation. The city has more than 20,000 commercial entities including large food-business operators and marriage halls that generate large amount of municipal solid waste every day. As the commercial establishments did not agree to the increase in conservancy charges by the Chennai Corporation, a series of meetings were organised over the past few months to resolve the deadlock. Commercial establishments that use 1,100 litre bins for conservancy were asked to pay Rs.1.31 lakh to the Chennai Corporation, according to the new proposal. Similarly, the establishments that use 120 litre bins were asked to pay Rs.14,600. The charges for marriage halls with a seating capacity of more than 1,000 were increased from Rs.12,000 to Rs.86,400 per year. BARC had already knocked on the doors of the Chennai Corporation to sell its garbage segregation technology and the civic body has suggested that commercial establishments use the indigenously-developed technology."

Garbage processing technology is readily available but its economic viability depends on the volume of waste generated. While a city with large population will have the wherewithal to invest on large processing plants and set up the infrastructure to distribute the products like power, manure etc, hotels, restaurants, marriage halls etc cannot be expected to generate regular garbage of required volume to sustain economically viable processing units, no matter how efficient the technology is. The Chennai civic body is trying to camouflage its utter inefficiency and lack of planning by passing on the responsibility to the tax payers! It is unfortunate that in a country like India there is no national policy on garbage management in urban townships with each one following its own unimaginative and ad hoc policies putting the tax payers at great disadvantage and inconvenience. It is time that major civic bodies in the country get together and evolve a uniform policy on garbage taxing and processing that is equitable to citizens, commercial establishments and the financial health of the city.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

WATER, WATER, WATER-A NATIONAL COMEDY!

Water is a precious material which is increasingly becoming scarce with each passing day. Compared to the position India was fifty years ago vis-a-vis water availability, the situation has become grave with drinking water becoming a commercial commodity, sold at exorbitant prices by the bottling industry to exploit the scarcity situation to the hilt. Governments at the Center as well as in the States vested with the responsibility of ensuring the well being of the citizens failed the nation by decades of maladministration and mismanagement as far water conservation and protected water supply are concerned. In a way if the industry is laughing all the way to their banks, thanks are largely due to the politicians and bureaucrats who run the governments! While in many cities in Europe, Canada and the United States active campaigns are undertaken to persuade citizens to consume the protected water supplied to them so that bottled water consumption is discouraged, in India practically every tap that supplies water is a source of danger to the citizens unless the same is filtered and boiled before consumption!  What a paradox! To add insult to the injury, the processors of water pay scant attention to the quality of product sold by them and recently many independent investigators who monitored the quality of water sold by many brands found that they do not conform to national standards prescribed in the statute books. Here is a take on this sorry situation in the country.

"After complaints about safety of bottled water sold in the national capital, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has written to the food regulator to check the bottling plants supplying such drinking water in Delhi and their water sources.  T he minister has also written to the Food Safety and Standards Association (FSSA) to check the chemical contents in the water bottles sold in and around Delhi and whether they are fit for human consumption. In a letter to FSSAI, which is responsible for maintaining standards of quality in anything consumed by people, Azad today asked the food regulator to depute teams to check water samples of all water sources and test the plants of bottling companies. Health Ministry sources said Azad's letters follows numerous complaints received by him about poor quality of bottled water sold in the open market. The Minister asked the regulator to check the contents of chemicals and ascertain their permissible limits to check if the bottling companies are using proper purification systems. Sources say the complaints refer to certain water sources from where the bottling plants are getting raw water and allege that the companies are using chemicals above the permissible limits to purify the water. Sources said the water samples of all brands, including those manufactured by top MNCs and government-run companies, would be taken".

What can one make out of the "Letter" from the Health Minister of the country to the FSSAI in which he "orders" the latter to "check" the quality of water marketed by the industry in Delhi only? Does this mean that citizens living in other parts of the country need not have any safety assurance from the industry? Probably the industry seems to have taken a cue from the Minister's obsession with Delhi and accordingly they are sending their sub-quality product consignments to far way places like Kerala! Health Minister in a country has the responsibility to ensure supply of food and water with impeccable quality and safety through the enormous vigilance infrastructure controlled by his ministry. As a guardian of health of its citizens he should have seen to it that all the municipal and panchayat areas are provided with safe drinking water. In stead he is doing a semantic exercise by writing letters to an office which is located in the same area from where his Ministry is also working! Can there be more insult to the citizen than this? One  wonders whether he had sent his letter through Indian Post or through courier service and whether the FSSAI has really received it!   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"NUTRITION FARMS"-A NEW AGRI-INITIATIVE IN ODISHA

If ideas and plans of governments can be really translated into reality, India would never have been in the present sorry situation. Some of the laws and regulations in the statute books are excellent in concept but there is no teeth in implementing the same in letter and spirit. Whether political class is to be blamed or it is bureaucratic machinery that is responsible for the malaise is a million dollar question begging for an answer! In the latest proposal emanating from Delhi, a Rs 200 crore project is about to be launched for setting up a cluster of nutritional food farms in Odisha State on lands belonging to the farmers for producing new crops which are more nutritious compared to their traditional counterparts and as a pilot project if this attempt succeeds same strategy is sought to be replicated throughout the country. GoI deserves full kudos for this idea though there can be many a slip between the cup and the lip! Here is a report on this proposal as being drafted by the Agri Min of GoI.  

The Union Ministry of Agriculture has launched a pilot project to set up nutrition farms in Kalahandi district. The project is aimed at promoting cultivation of crops rich in critical micro nutrients to improve the nutrition level in food in those districts of the country which are affected by mal-nutrition. The Central Government has earmarked ` 200 crore for the implementation of the  project. Besides Kalahandi, the project will be implemented in Boudh, Dhenkanal, Gajpati, Koraput and Malkangiri districts. Deputy Director of Agriculture Kalahandi circle Kailash Chandra Behera said it is programmed to organise and demarcate the clusters for the nutritionally rich selective bio fortified crops. The varieties to be grown in Kalahandi are AD-43 paddy fortified with zinc and micro nutrients, HQPM - 1 to 5 varieties of maize which is rich in lysine and tryptophan and finger millet of PRM-1, VL-315 and VL-324 varieties which are rich in iron and zinc. It is programmed to set up farms in the fields of beneficiaries. Paddy will be raised in 100 clusters, maize in 230 and finger millets in 100. Each of the clusters will be of 10 hectares. Seed, micro nutrients and fertiliser worth `5000 per hectare will be given to the beneficiaries while ` 500 per hectare will be given for miscellaneous expenses to execute the works. The pilot project is a new concept and will be gradually popularised, added Behera.

Iron and Vitamin A are the two critical micro nutrients which are grossly inadequate causing anemia and blindness among many rural folks. The new seeds and other required inputs are sought to be supplied to the identified  farmers with necessary technical assistance for familiarizing them with right agricultural husbandry practices to enable them to raise the new crops. Whether the eating quality of new varieties being propagated would be satisfactory as far as the consumers are concerned or whether theses farmers will face any problem in marketing the surplus production remains to be seen. One may recall similar efforts earlier to propagate Vitamin A rich rice varieties by the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) which was not an unqualified success because of the yellow tint evident in the grains. Same fate should not befall here also and GoI should be beware of this.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE GRAIN OF "TRUTH"!-NATION'S FOOD "WOES" AND POLITICAL APATHY!

Indian nation has to thank the Supreme Court of the land for rapping at the knuckles of the political masters who claim they are "governing" the country, for the awfully sorry situation vis-a-vis food grain storage and mindless food wastage. It is a reflection of the total apathy of the political class, irrespective of their class or color or creed, that adequate precautions were not taken to save the food grains so painfully produced by the teeming millions of farmers through their sweat and blood by not expanding the storage capacity in commensurate with ever increasing production. Probably no where in the world except India one can witness the colossal loss of food year after after year through sheer negligence and callousness of unbelievable magnitude. In the latest report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has made a scathing indictment of the government of the day for its continued neglect of food grains and granaries of the country.

'The national auditor highlighted the increasingly inadequate storage capacity of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the government agency entrusted with food management and the procurement of food grains. This storage gap and other policies of the FCI led to food spoiling in a nation where millions still go hungry everyday. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said in its report that was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday that the storage gap widened to 331.85 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) from 59.95 LMT in the six-year period between 2007 and 2012. The report said efforts to address the issue were inadequate. "The storage gap in FCI against the central pool stock witnessed a steady increase during the period 2006-07 to 2011-12," it said. "Against the storage gap of 332 LMT (March 2012), GoI (government of India)/FCI envisaged capacity addition of only 163 LMT during the six-year period under various augmentation programmes. Of this, only 34 LMT was completed (March 2012)." Even as storage capacity remained inadequate, existing capacity was not completely utilized. The auditor observed that utilization of existing storage capacity in various states and union territories was less than 75% in the majority of the months between 2006-07 and 2011-12. This amounted to unnecessary expenditure of Rs.376 crore during the period as FCI didn't use the space it had in Punjab and Haryana, the auditor said. Though there was a steady increase in the food stock procured by government agencies, it didn't match allocation requirements under various government schemes. "The average food grains procurement of 514 LMT during the period 2006-07 to 2011-12 was lower than the average allocation of 593 LMT made by the government to states under the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) and other welfare schemes (OWS)," the report said. CAG highlighted the absence of specifications for maximum and manageable stock levels to be maintained in the central pool and of minimum buffer norms. It added that the existing buffer stock policy does not indicate which agency is primarily responsible for maintaining the minimum buffer stock level for the country as a whole, which adversely affects accountability and transparency in the management of food grains. The report said the government doesn't follow a specific policy for fixing the minimum support price (MSP) relative to the cost of production. "It was observed that the margin of MSP fixed over the cost of production varied between 29% and 66% in case of wheat, and 14% and 60% in case of paddy during the period 2006-07 to 2011-12. Increase in MSP had a direct bearing on statutory changes levied on purchase of food grains by different state governments," said the report, adding that this eventually resulted in the rising acquisition cost of food grains".

There will be blame game and "passing on the buck" statements regarding the reasons for this sordid affair but fact still remains that those culpable for this criminal negligence are never brought to books for their shirking of responsibility. Government "spin doctors" adept at interpreting any indictment as unavoidable, will continue to present a picture as not so discouraging, though more than 200 million people in this country are supposed to be going to bed every day on a hungry stomach! Even to day a non-repentant ruling regime does not seem to be serious about the plans to expand storage capacity and in stead trotting out tall claims about future plans to remedy the situation without really meaning a single word of what they are saying! This raises the logical question as to when this country is going to be ever salvaged from the self seeking politicians parading under the garb of democracy!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE BREAST MILK "MAGIC"-IMITATORS BETTER WATCH OUT!

The news that breast milk is the best milk for the new born babies may not be a new one but from time to time new revelations by nutritionists and health experts reinforce this belief more than ever. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) may not be a common disease and most people must be unaware of this crippling disease that kills thousands of children, especially premature babies every year. While NEC has been thoroughly studied in the US and deaths due to this disorder are well documented, it is in the third world where child mortality is considered high reasons for their death are not well documented. It is recently that international agencies have put India on top of the list of nations with highest first day deaths among the newly born babies!  Now that NEC has been studied and the reason behind it known, breast milk emerges as the single most effective intervention mode to save such threatened babies. Scientists seem to have found the scientific reason for breast milk to be effective in counteracting NEC opening up doors for new treatment regime for these children. Here is a take on this new development.

"When little Georgia Cullen was born four months early last February, she weighed less than two pounds. Her doctors supplemented her mother Julie's breast milk with formula to help her grow, and she did. But last March, Georgia developed a dangerous and potentially deadly intestinal infection. "Her stomach started to swell up," says her father, Jim Cullen, of Erie, Pa. She was flown by helicopter to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. "To have your daughter born early is scary. She was doing so well up to that point, so it was even scarier." Georgia pulled through, but lost much of her intestine to the infection. Now the surgeon who operated on her thinks he's helped find a compound in human breast milk that may prevent that complication. Her condition, called necrotizing enterocolitis, is an immune system overreaction that kills thousands of premature babies every year. "Breast milk for many years has been known to protect against this disease," says Dr. David Hackam, who treated Georgia. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC for short) affects about 25,000 babies a year in the United States, according to the American Pediatric Surgical Association. The risk goes way up for babies born weighing less than three pounds, 1,500 grams. Anywhere between 20 percent and 30 percent of them die, according to a 2009 study in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery".

Baby food formula being churned out by the multi billion infant food manufacturing industry often claim, though subtly, that their products are equivalent to natural breast milk! But health experts categorically assert that the same can never be a substitute for normal growth for normal children of normal parents. It is because of relentless consumer pressure and government push that they are declaring on the label that "breast milk is the best milk", though reluctantly, and consumer has a chance to know about the reality. Now that the unique chemical present in breast milk that is responsible for preventing disorders like NEC and ensure baby's gut health has been identified, will the industry rush to modify the current crops of infant foods to include this chemical also? But whether such modified formula can still be as effective as natural breast milk is a million dollar question. Safety authorities must be careful in granting clearance to such products to protect children from unanticipated side effects which may be caused by including a chemical like Sodium Nitrate in a baby food formula.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com