Food Science and Nutrition
Food Science and Nutrition, is a core discipline of Community (Home) Science Education under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and is firmly embedded in agriculture, in line with the mandate of teaching, research and outreach activities of the State Agriculture Universities (SAUs) in the country. The Institute offers four years professional Under Graduate degree program in B.Sc. (Hons.) Food Nutrition and Dietetics and the Masters and Doctoral degree programs in Food and Nutrition. The B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. (FSN) curricula are revised in tune with the common academic ICAR regulations on par with renowned National and International Institutes. The curriculum is framed to provide theoretical and practical orientation in tune with the latest scientific advancements so that students are competent to face the challenges of the dynamics of the competitive food, nutrition and health sectors.
EDUCATION
The teaching, research and outreach pursuits of the Institute concentrates on the core areas of Food Science and Nutrition viz., Post Harvest Technology, New Food Product Development, Therapeutic Nutrition, Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods and Community Nutrition, the diversity of which provides the students in depth knowledge and skills for enhancing higher education opportunities, research capabilities, employability and entrepreneurship. The research findings of the Department are attributed to the research undertaken by the students and the faculty through externally funded projects ( ICAR, DBT, DST-SERB, MoFPI, NMPB, Bamboo Mission, NAIP, SIPDA, CDB, SDB, TANII, TNSCST, TNSLURB, SPCDB, Canada etc.,), research funded by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and as part of student research.
RESEARCH
Priority areas of research
Developing post harvest techniques is essential to face the challenges of the food processing sector, to prevent produce wastage during seasonal gluts, extend shelf life, for value addition and making food available during the off season. Hence research activities of the department is focused both on improvising traditional food processing methods and also adopting emerging areas of processing techniques including minimal processing, hurdle technology, extrusion technology, osmotic dehydration, freeze drying, aseptic processing, active packaging etc., The research activities are directed towards Processing of Agricultural and Horticultural crops with a need based approach for working out solutions to achieve nutrition security.
Food Product Development
Social and technological changes have caused major advances in product formulation and development with emphasis on the convenience foods. Hence, the research area focuses on development of convenience foods, quality evaluation and food safety assurance.
Food Quality and Safety
The significance of food safety and quality makes it mandatory to prioritize food quality control. Since the quality of food products is based on the composition of the product, expected deteriorative reactions, packaging used and the storage condition, students undertake research in this area to address issues pertaining to physical, chemical, nutritional, microbiological and sensory aspects of food and food ingredients during processing, storage and in the supply chain with emphasis on food safety from farm to fork.
Community Nutrition
Community nutrition provides long term solutions by the adoption of sustainable methods to combat malnutrition. Research projects and thesis research are designed on population surveillance to study nutritional status of selected population groups, identify macro and micro nutrient deficiencies, food fortification, planning and implementation of appropriate intervention strategies and impact assessment.
The Department of Food Science and Nutrition, serves as a platform for undertaking research in the aforementioned need based areas and also facilitates knowledge sharing, community participation and development.
Outreach activities
The department places equal emphasis in outreach activities aimed at transfer of technology to the food industry, farming community and other stake holders such as; unemployed youth, entrepreneurs with the focus on promotion of food processing and preservation for assurance of food, nutrition and health security. The department also emphasis on promoting entrepreneurship in food processing and value addition by way of consultancy services, training program, field visits, food quality and safety testing for the stakeholders under a nominal fee.