Soon, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will serve ready-to-eat food to train passengers using the processing and packaging technology developed by the Defence Food Research Laboratory.
This follows the signing of an agreement between the IRCTC, a subsidiary of Indian Railways, and DFRL, a Defence Ministry establishment working under Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), on Monday for transfer of technology of retort pouch processed food. These products can be eaten straight out of the packs or can be warmed up by dipping it in hot water or keeping it in hot air over before being consumed. Such food has better acceptability as compared to their canned counterparts, said a release by the IRCTC.
With the IRCTC already commencing trials for preparing ready-to-eat food using DFRL’s technology, around 36,000 packets of vegetable biryani, rajma chawal, jeera rice, tamarind rice, lemon rice, wheat upma, dal rice and chicken biryani are expected to be rolled out in the first week of July.
“We will offer them on select trains, where the IRCTC provides catering service. If passengers wish to consume the food on the train, our personnel will warm the food items in the pantry car,” an IRCTC official told The Hindu . Food items will be available in 150 and 300 g packets, whose shelf-life is six months. Passengers can even take the packages home too.
These food products can be eaten straight out of the packs or can be warmed up by dipping in hot water
