Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL)

Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) came into being on 28th December 1961 under the aegis of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, Government of India, at Mysore especially to cater to the varied food challenges of Indian Army, Navy, Airforce and other paramilitary forces.

Our troops often operate in far-flung inhospitable treacherous terrains under inclement and hostile weather conditions. In such operational situations, not only are they deprived of the fresh produce needed to sustain life processes, even normal regime of cooking becomes extremely cumbersome and difficult for them.

The R & D efforts at DFRL are aimed at designing and engineering lightweight, convenience pack rations for Army, Navy, Air Force and other paramilitary forces. These pack rations do not require any elaborate cooking or preparation at the consumer’s end and remain shelf-stable under varying climatic conditions for periods ranging from 6 months to 1 year when packed properly. This is the only Laboratory, which is exclusively engaged in Research and Development in the field of Food Science and Technology for Defence Forces. Prior to the inception of DFRL, the laboratory functioned as a Food Group within the precincts of Defence Science Laboratory, Delhi.

DFRL, through the dedicated efforts of its scientists and technologists, over the last four decades, has been able to conserve, preserve, stabilize, design, fabricate and engineer a vast array of food products of Indian dietary which are not only shelf stable under all weather conditions but also deliver adequate nutrition and energy to keep the morale of our Service personnel high at all times.

Many of the DFRL foods, born out of innovative state-of-the-art technologies, lend themselves eminently suitable to industrial scale commercial exploitation by enterprising entrepreneurs of different genre.

VISION
To be technological leader of excellence in food research and product development

MISSION
Design, develop and evaluate; safe, nutritious and convenience food to meet the needs of Services and spin off to civil application.

CORE COMPETENCE
Development of Convenience and Ready to Eat Food Products, Implementation of Packaging Systems and Processing Technologies for Fresh and Processed Food, Testing and Evaluation of Food.

Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL)
ACHIEVEMENTS

Regime of Technologies Developed

The various technologies, which have been developed through the sustained and dedicated efforts of scientists at DFRL, encompass the following:

Retort Processing of Food in Flexible Pouches
Food Additives Technology
Cold Shock Dehydration Technology
Accelerated Freeze Dehydration Technology
High Temperature Short Time (HTST) dehydration Technology
Pneumatic Drying Technology
Flaking Technology
Fluidized Beds Drying of Cereals, Pulses and Vegetables
Spray Drying
Technology of Hurdle Processing and Preservation
Intermediate Moisture (IM) Foods Technology
Microencapsulation Technology
HTST Extrusion Technology
Compressed Foods' Technology
Thermal Processing of Foods in Aluminium Containers
Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Ultrafilteration (UF) Technology
Combination Dehydration Technology
Stack Encapsulation Technologies
Technology for the Extension of Shelf-Life (SL) of Fresh Fruits & Vegetables
Ready To Eat Foods
Short Term Preserved Chapaties.
Preserved and Flavoured Chapaties.
Spiced Potato Parathas.
Besan Burfi.
Stabilised Chikki.
Fruit Bar.
Compressed Cereal Bar.
Nutri Food Bar.
High Protein Snacks
Sorgham flakes
Sorgham snacks
Canned upama
Canned Avial
Coconut burfee
Composite Breakfast Cereal
Emergency / Survival Bar.
Hurdle Technology Preserved Fruits.
Various Retort Pouch Processed Food Products.
Intermediate Moisture (IM) Fruits.
Vegetable Halwa.
Fruit Juice (Preserved)
Preserved Tender Coconut Water.
Egg Biscuits.
Seabuckthorn based products
Fiber rich biscuits
Quick Cooking Foods
Insta Nutro Cereal Mix (Bisibele Bath).
Pre-Cooked Dehydrated (PD) Pulav Mix.
PD Khichdi Mix.
PD Dhal Curries.
PD Rice.
Dehydrated Potato-Peas Curry.
Dehydrated Cauliflower-Potato / Peas Curry Mix.
Dehydrated Avial Mix.
Vermicelli Kheer Mix.
Vermicelli Upma Mix.
Rava Idli Mix.
Dehydrated Spiced Mutton Keema.
Dehydrated Mutton Pulav.
Instantised Foods
Instant Curried Dhals.
Instant Pulav Mix.
Instant Khichidi Mix.
Instant Basmati Rice.
Instant Whole Legumes.
Instant Kadhi Mix.
Instant Halwa Mix.
Instant Upma Mix.
Instant Coconut Chutney Mix.
Omelette and Scrambled Egg Mix powder.
Instant Carrot Halwa Mix.
Instant Green Leafy Vegetable Dhal Curry Mixes.
Instant Germinated Pulses.
Hurdle Technology Stabilised Cooked Vegetables (French Beans, Capsicum).
Curry Paste Concentrate.
Fruits based milk and lassi beverage mixes.
Instant Mutton Soup Powder.
Instant Chicken soup Powder.
Freeze Dried (FD) Foods and Drinks
Freeze Dried Fruit Juice Powders.
Freeze Dried Shrimp.
Freeze Dried Mushroom Soup Powder.
Freeze Dried Chicken Pulav.
Freeze Dried Meat (Mutton & Chicken).
Freeze Dried Fruit Slices and bits (Mango, Banana, Apple)
Novel Innovations and Technologies
Minimally processed vegetables in precut and packaged form.
Additive Treatment for Dehydrated Vegetables.
Orange Drink Mix.
Fungistatic Wrapper.
Stayfresh Chemicals for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.
Micro-Encapsulated Flavours.
Keep Fresh Salt.
Stack Encapsulation Technique.
Leg Operated Chapati Rolling Machine.
Cold shock Drying Technology.
Self Heating system for RTE food in flexible pouches
Automatic Chapthi making Machine.
Ration Packs
Compo Pack Ration.
Supplementary Compo Pack Ration.
Emergency Flying Ration
Survival Ration
MBT Ration
Convenience Mixes
Appetizer drinks and munches
Convenience mixes based on rice as well as ragi

Patents Granted - 12
A process for preparation of instant cooking rice.
A process for the preparation of a composition used for detection of storage degradation in foods.
A process for the preparation of instant cooking pulses and whole legumes.
A process for the preparation of an extract from curry leaves (Muraya Koenigi)
A process for the preparation of antioxygenic salt.
A process for the preparation of instant cooking pulses flakes.
A process for the preparation of conditioned dry extruded food products.
Gas absorbing blanket for storage of fruits and vegetables.
A process technique for the preservation of Tender Coconut Water.
A process for preparation of Instant cooking Bisibele Bath.
A process for the preparation of fruit pulps and fruit juice powders.
A process for the preparation of shelf stable pre cooked dal in the form of soft small granules/noodles.

Patents Filed : 70
Patents Granted : 12

Recent Developments
Automatic Chapati Making Machine (4’x 4’ x 6’) with capacity of making 1200 chapaties per hour in collaboration with M/s K M Enterprises New Delhi
Milk based sweet dish (Rabdi) using freeze drying technology
Ready to serve beverages
Palmyra based Fruit bar and jam
Six types of new menu based on Ready to Eat products for MRE rations
Improved chapaties with better texture and taste
Natural anti oxidant rich biscuits
Rhodiola rosea based coffee
A process for preserving fresh meat up to 4-6 days using natural plant/seed extracts.