MYSORE : The premier institutions in the country Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), has extended its support with a ready to eat food packets to the people of the Jammu and Kashmir reeling under unprecedented floods. Staff of the DFRL in Mysore are working round-the-clock to meet the demand and dispatched the first lot of five tonnes of ready-to-eat processed food two days back, according to DFRL sources here today.
The institute is set to dispatch another load of nearly six tonnes of food to the flood-hit State. DFRL Director Harsha Vardhan Batra said that the relief materials will either be airlifted from Mysore or Bangalore and are awaiting communication from the DRDO headquarters in New Delhi.
Even though the laboratory provides ready-to-eat nutritional food for the armed forces only, however, when occasion arises it will comes forward to help during natural calamities across the country, Dr.Batra said adding the DFRL would continue to manufacture and dispatch food packages until the impact of the calamity subsides.
‘The food we send will not be a waste as it has a shelf life of
one year and can be stored for distribution in future if needed,’ he said.
The laboratory has a mandate to meet the varied requirements of the armed forces, from soldiers deployed in sub-zero temperatures at Siachen Glacier to those in the searing heat of the
deserts. Apart from providing nutritious food, we have to conceive new functional attributes like infusing it with anti-fatigue and anti-depression properties. After years of research, DFRL is on the cusp of developing thermogenic food, said Dr. Batra.
The survival ration pack for the Navy, commando ration pack, emergency ration pack for the Army and flying ration pack for the IAF crew are manufactured at the DFRL exclusively for defence personnel.
Besides, it has over 500 technology transfers to nearly 230 companies so far and is working on new concepts and technologies with potential spin-off benefits to civilian society.
It is not the first time that the laboratory has come into picture during calamities.
The laboratory had pitched in with its resources when a super cyclone struck Odisha in the late 1990s and during the Uttarakhand floods last year.
The instant food and ready-to-eat nutritious energy bars are also consumed by the para military forces and armed forces during the anti-naxal operations and reconnaissance missions. (agencies)
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