Foodanzaa’22

Foodanzaa’22, an Expo and Food Festival and Awareness programme on “Food Adulteration” was organised by the Department of Food Technology, School of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences in Association with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Kanchipuram District on 15 March 2022. Dr. T. Anuradha, Food Safety Officer, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Kanchipuram District presided over the event as the Chief Guest.

Objective:

Entrepreneurship and the development of new creative products are a part of the B.Sc. Food Technology programme. Students must receive enough training to achieve this requirement. At the student level, developing entrepreneurial skills necessitate appropriate preparation in order to prepare and sell products in the market. Customers' core needs must be understood. Furthermore, unique product development talents demand extensive study and development before they can be marketed to the general public. It needs critical feedback from specialists. Thus, live programmes are essential to instil the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and innovative product development abilities in a realistic manner. As a result, students will be involved in planning, preparing, and arranging the necessary elements for the creation of food stuffs. Keeping this in mind, a multi-event task programme was put together to give students a chance.

Foodanzaa’22, a composite programme, included a new product development exhibition, food festival, and an awareness programme on food adulteration.

Food Festival: Dr. S. N. Sridhara, Vice Chancellor inaugurated Foodanzaa’22, a composite programme, which included a new product development exhibition, food festival, and an awareness programme on food adulteration. Dr. Alexander Jesudasan, Pro VC; Dr. David T. Easow, Head - School of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences; Deans, Heads, faculty members, and students attended the event. Students set up six stalls in the Open Air Theatre and sold culinary goods such as millet-based items, fiber-rich cupcakes, fruit mixes, and chat variants to other students on campus. Food items included, Gulab Jamun 'N' ice cream, Cupcakes, Andhra special chat, Fruit bowl, Mojito, and Pani puri. Students and faculty members praised the marketed products for their sensory quality, affordability, and serving ways. By selling the foods, students earned Rs. 12,770/-.

Outcomes:

Students learnt,

• Fundamentals of marketing and hospitality—the heart of any entrepreneur's expertise.
• How to obtain raw ingredients and keep records of all purchases and sales
• How to maintain food safety and hygiene practices in the manufacturing and retailing areas.
• The know-hows of selling a product in a crowded environment.
• Maintain records for auditing.

Food Expo: The expo began at 12:30 p.m. at the MGR auditorium where students exhibited 14 different processed food items produced from millet, fruits, and vegetables. Among the 14 dishes, African foods, Bitter guard laddu, Green apple jelly, Aloe vera curry, Beetroot peels murukku, and Tea leaf murukku were highly innovative. Dr. T. Anuradha's food safety team visited and interacted with student presenters. Students also showed food safety awareness posters. Over 120 people registered for the programme.

Outcomes:

• Identified the novel avenues to produce new products.
• Learned how to formulate the ingredients for developing new food products.
• Educated how to assess the quality parameters.
• Got awareness to launch new products in the markets to cater societal needs.

Awareness on Food Adulteration: Dr. T. Anuradha, and her team members gave a presentation on food safety and food adulteration. Dr. T. Anuradha spoke on the dangers of food adulteration and illustrated how to spot it in popular items such as milk, jaggery, dhall, honey, pepper, salt, sugar, apple, and eggs, among others. Food safety logos on packaged 5 food goods were introduced to students and volunteers. She also discussed the significance of Food Safety Training and Certification (FOSTAC) training, as well as the use of the Food Safety Mitra portal. Dr. T. Anuradha gave Certificates of Appreciation to the Winners of the inter-departmental programmes that were held. Besides 200 students, Dr. Kantharaj, Deputy Registrar, Ms. H. Sulatha, Dietician, Dr. Surendra Babu, Mr. N. Guruprasad, and Dr. Adeyeye Samuel were present. Ms. Roshini Sattar and Ms. Ankita Tirkey, B. Sc. Food Technology students, hosted the event.

Outcomes:

• Types of food adulterants and difference between contaminated and regular foods were learnt.
• Educated on how to read and recognise the details on any packaged item including logo.