Welcome to Department of Food Engineering and Technology
The Department of Food Engineering and Technology (FETD) was established in then UDCT in 1943 offering Bachelor of Science (Tech) in Chemistry of Foods and Drugs. Later in 1949, a full-fledged B.Sc Tech. degree course in Food Technology was started. In 1963, again for the first time in the country, Masters program in Fermentation Technology was initiated and the department was christened ‘Food and Fermentation Technology Department’. In the 21st Century, after aligning all the graduate programs as 12+ 4 pattern, the department has focused on engineering as well. To keep up with the present times, the course in Fermentation Technology has been restructured as Food Biotechnology.
FETD also takes pride in playing a leading role in co-curricular as well extension activities at ICT and also through professional body, Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India) or AFST (I).
We are thankful to UGC for the Center of Advanced Studies Status (CAS-I) and continued support by way of Ph.D fellowships under the SAP program. Support from TEQIP too facilitated many students and faculty in attending conferences and showcasing their work. ICT has been active in instituting several merit-cum-means scholarship for the needy and meritorious undergraduate students.
The burgeoning student strength is placing severe constraints on our infrastructure. Generous donations from alumni and their organizations have helped us in renovating our labs and infrastructure considerably. Our state of the art conference room sponsored by Fine Organics Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, Prof. D. V. Rege Centre for Advanced Food Technology by HiMedia Laboratories Pvt Ltd, Thane, and renovation of labs through generous funding by our alumni, Shri Lalit Chadha and Dr. Anil Shrikhande, are some of the manifestations of unstinted support that we have been blessed to receive.
There are still some infrastructural gaps which we plan to bridge in the coming days. We seek financial help in the form of generous donations from all the well-wishers and alumni for the same, and also to strengthen our donation account through which we cater to the needs of the department, be it the maintenance of the equipments and instruments or other needs as are relevant to all the stake holders. We appeal to all concerned to extend their support in whatever way they can. We are also grateful to all our UG-PG students and support staff for being with us at all times and enriching our lives in numerous ways. We look forward to your continued support and long term association with us.
Present Scenario: The FETD comprises of the following human resources: No. of Students: Undergraduates- 70 Doctorates- 63 Masters- 45 No. of Faculty (in place): Professors- 2 Associate Professors- 1 Assistant Professor- 2
Vacancy: (3) Professor- 1 Associate Professor- 1
Supporting Staff: 7
Major Research Interests Thrust areas under CAS include:
1. Carbohydrate Chemistry &Technology
- Cereal science & technology
- Chemistry & technology of traditional foods
- Enzymology, enzyme applications, modification of enzymes
- Food product/process development; instant food premixes
- Food quality analysis
- Fruits and vegetable processing
2. Fermentation Technology& Food Biotechnology
- Fermented foods
- Fermentative production and downstream processing of enzymes/metabolites
- Nutraceuticals & natural pigments
- Nutrigenomics
- Plant tissue culture
Major Instrumental / Processing Facilities Infrastructure The FETD is well structured with equipments required for food processing that include extruders, retort processing unit, blast and fluidized freezer, pasta making machine, modified atmosphere packaging, dough sheeter, tray and IR dryer, fluidized bed dryer, fermentor, high pressure homogenizer, ultrasonic processor, RO and ultrafiltration unit, spray dryer, and twin screw extruder. The FETD also houses many analytical instruments such as HPLC, HPTLC, GC, GC-MS spectrophotometers, Hunter lab colorimeter, image analyzer, Brookfield rheometer, texturimeter, Haake viscometer, electrophoresis unit, protein purification system, PCR thermal cyclers, RT-PCR, and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC).
In Last Five Years Major Grants: UGC, TEQIP, RGSTC, MOFPI, ICAR, DBT, DAE, AICTE, DST.