Department of Food Engineering and Technology

Agricultural production in India has made rapid strides in the past three decades and enabled us to achieve self sufficiency in food grains. Significant increase has also been achieved in the production of fruits, vegetables, milk, egg, meat and other food products. However, less than 1.7% of our total horticultural produce is processed as compared to more than 60% in developed countries. It is estimated that the post harvest losses in durable commodities are around 10% and in perishables about 40%, resulting in a value loss of the order of Rs.50,000 crores a year, because of the inadequate processing technologies, infrastructure facilities and qualified technical personnel. In the present scenario of economic liberalization and changing food consumption habits, the Indian Food Industry will shift to foods that demand more appropriate handling, processing, preservation, storage and marketing resulting in greater protein intake besides making the Indian Food Products internationally competitive. To meet out the challenges in the food processing industry, adequate number of qualified technical personnel in food process engineering is the need of the hour. Anticipating the high demand of technical personnel in the field of Food Process Technology, BTC- BODOLAND has started the B.Tech. Course in FPT from the academic year of 2009 with an annual intake of 32 students. The syllabus is framed with balance of theory, practical and project laboratories at the institutional level. As a part of the programme, students visit food processing and food plant manufacturing industries to get an overview. Besides, students undergo one semester in-plant project training in an industry related to food to get insight of the industry. This makes the student confident to take any responsibility in the area of food processing. The objective of this programme is to train the best talents of the nation in order to provide a support base for the country’s food security. The programme is designed to expose the students to the state-of-art laboratory facilities created with assistance from Ministry Human Resources Department, Govt. of India and BTC. Hands-on training in commercial food processing industries, students’ project work, exposure to national and international seminars and multi-disciplinary approaches is the highlights of this course. We are committed to creating a graduate research environment and culture that fosters excellence and diversity, and inspires a generation of food scientists externally visible to the college, university, and international computing communities.