Coimbatore: Ice cream made of milk extracted from millets and flavoured with jackfruit became an instant hit among visitors at the Agri Intex2018 held at Codissia Trade fair Complex in the city on Friday.
The product was the brainchild of the students at the College of Food and Diary Technology under the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. “Our students conducted a research to reduce the fat content in ice creams and came up with the idea of using a portion of millet milk to make it. Nutrients in the millets enrich it,” said assistant professor A Karthiayani.
They have also made ice creams containing skimmed milk along with millet milk, which have less than 5% fat content, said V Divya, a project co-ordinator. “Millets such as pearl millet and sorghum were used to extract milk for the ice cream. We used the pulps of jackfruit, mango, blueberries and muskmelon to flavour it,” she told TOI.
The institute acquired a two-year funding from the department of science and technology’s (DST’s) National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), through its ‘Innovation - Science and Technology based Entrepreneurship Development (i-STED)’ scheme for the project, Karthiayani said. “Under the project, students develop methods to make nutritious food. This would be taught to interested people at our workshops. Those who already have a plant can manufacture it and market it. Those who don’t, can use our equipment to make it by paying a nominal fee under our incubation scheme and then market it,” said Karthiayani.
The institution has a target of producing 10 entrepreneurs a year. “The institute has produced 20 entrepreneurs in two years. Five of them make millet ice creams,” she said.
Sixty-year-old PP Manimozhi from Panruti in Cuddalore, a members of the Cuddalore District Food Producers Association, is one such entrepreneur. He underwent training on making the ice cream three week ago. “As jackfruits are abundant in Panruti, we used it to flavour the ice cream. We have set up a temporary plant near the city that can make 20,000 cups of ice cream a day,” Manimozhi said. “This was the first time we tested the product among the public and the response was overwhelming. Several distributors have asked us to supply the ice cream in Coimbatore. We are planning to set up a plant here as well.”
While a cup of the ice cream is sold for Rs 20 at the fair, the market price would be approximately Rs 25, Manimozhi added.
