IMPHAL, Sept 5 � Manipur�s traditional fermented delicacies including Hawaichar and Nagaland�s Akhuni will be available beyond the region once a commercial unit of the traditional fermented foods of the Northeastern States is developed.
�We are trying to formulate a methodology to standardise the fermented foods of North East India so that it could be available in commercial scale beyond the region�, Lokesh Deb, a Pharmacology scientist of the Institute of Bio-resource and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Takyelpat here said.
The issue was widely discussed in presence of Dr Rajesh Kapur, advisor of Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) and Prof BL Jaikhani, senior consultant of NE region biotechnology project during the DBT sponsored two day brainstorming workshop on the �Traditional Fermented Foods of North East India� which concluded at IBSD campus here on Friday.
On the concluding day, the scientists from the North eastern States excluding Mizoram and Nagaland decided to entrust IBSD, Takyelpat to formulate a comprehensive road map for the development of fermented fish and soya products while Dr JP Tamang, head of Food Microbiology department of Sikkim University will head ateam to develop a database on fermented food of the region besides taking up standardisation move of the fermented non-soya vegetables.
Dr Rajesh Kapur of DBT in his concluding remark expected that traditional fermented food of the region would be made available in less than three years time once the standardisation and commercialisation process is concluded.
According to IBSD�s pharmacology scientist Lokesh Deb, 80 per cent of the fermented food in the country were produced for local consumption in the NE States.
The workshop which aims to develop value-added food products through scientific research on the traditional fermented foods of NE India was attended by 20 scientists from outside NE namely Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai and from institutes within the NE namely North East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat, IIT, Guwahati, Institute of Advanced studies in Science Technology, Guwahati, College of Fisheries, Tripura, North East Regional Institute of Science & Technology, Itanagar, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Assam University, Silchar, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat and Dibrugarh University.
