Tag: Food & Ag-Science Innovations

2020-21 Annual Report: Improving Farm Yields through Comprehensive Soil Health
Soil degradation, resulting from poor land management practices such as the overuse of fertilizers, can worsen farm productivity. Yet, across India, efforts to improve soil quality have focused almost exclusively on chemical properties, ignoring the physical and biological processes that make soils dynamic and complex living systems.

2020-21 Annual Report: Improving Nutrition During Weaning
Ensuring good nutrition during weaning can help set a child on the path of good health and development. Yet, when it comes time to wean babies from breast milk or formula, many parents reach for puffed cereal snacks that, while convenient, offer little nutritional benefit at a time when children’s protein requirement is at its peak.

2020-21 Annual Report: Using Microalgae to Address Iron Deficiency
TCI is exploring an innovative approach to curbing iron deficiency by fortifying wheat flour using a byproduct of the biofuel industry. Widely consumed and available through India’s Public Distribution System, wheat flour is an ideal vehicle for fortification.

2020-21 Annual Report: Curbing Vitamin A Deficiency through Biofortification
Orange-fleshed sweet potato has shown great promise toward reducing vitamin A insufficiency in the diet when introduced to rural communities in developing regions, as an easy-to-cultivate crop and a tasty, affordable, healthy food. Although it has been successfully introduced in East Africa, where white-fleshed varieties of sweet potato are regularly consumed, Indian consumers have little to no experience with the tubers.

TCI Publishes 2020-21 Annual Report
The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) has published its 2020-21 Annual Report.
The report offers an in-depth look at the full range of TCI’s research and other activities, such as its signature project, Technical Assistance and Research for…

Process Optimization and Product Characterization of Milk Protein Concentrate Extrudates Expanded by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
Abstract The effects of water and supercritical CO2 (SC–CO2) addition rate, and pressure at SC–CO2 injection (PCO2) on physical and rheological properties of milk protein concentrate (MPC81) and MPC81-sucrose (MPC81-S) extrudates were investigated. As PCO2 increased, extrudate expansion decreased and storage modulus and hardness increased. PCO2 for MPC81...

Microstructure Modification of Milk Protein Extrudates by Reactive Superficial Fluid Extrusion
Abstract Utilization of supercritical fluid extrusion (SCFX) to alter the microstructure of biopolymers offers new opportunities to design novel products of enhanced utility. In this project, SCFX was utilized to modify the microstructure of milk protein concentrate (MPC) extrudates to develop quick, in-mouth disintegrating products....

Subtracting Additives: Using Extruder Die Design to Create Healthier Processed Foods
In today’s fast-paced world, where more and more people are consuming convenient processed foods. A renewed focus on health is driving demand for processed foods with the nutritional benefits of natural whole foods. In response, food companies are working to…

Thinking About Soil from the Farmers’ Perspectives
Good, healthy soils are not only critical for crop production, they are also crucial for good nutrition. Soils high in mineral content produce crops with higher levels of those nutrients. Yet in developing countries like India, which struggles to provide…

Project Aims to Curb Farm Waste Burning
The haze of pollution that settles over Delhi, India, has many sources directly in the city, such as the more than 10 million cars that drive on its roads. But some of the smog comes from hundreds of miles away,…