By Sushil Koirala
25 March 2022 — The Food Innovation, Nutrition, and Health (FINH) and Food Engineering and Bioprocess Technology (FEBT) Academic Programs at the Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources (FAB), School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) conducted a one-day workshop on the theme “Food Innovations & the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” via a hybrid platform on 25th March 2022 to inspire action towards Sustainable Development Goals. A total of 87 participants; 45 (in person) and 42 (online) attended the workshop.
The morning hours of the workshop was conducted as plenary session followed by experts’ presentations. Dr. Avishek Datta, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources (FAB) AIT in his welcome remarks, highlighted the food security challenges and the importance of knowledge to build towards achieving SDGs. As a plenary speaker, Prof Anil Kumar Anal, Professor in Food Innovation, Nutrition and Health (FINH), AIT highlighted on the topic “Food Innovations and the SDGs”, the emerging challenges and some innovative ideas as perspectives to achieve some of the relevant SDGs, such as SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG13 (Climate Action) and SDG17 (Partnership for the Goals). Dr. Loc Thai Nguyen, Associate Professor at Food Engineering and Bioprocess Technology (FEBT), AIT highlighted on the importance of food safety and quality and presented some cross-cutting technologies. Dr. Muhammad Bilal Sadiq, Associate Professor at Forman Christian College, Pakistan presented on “Food Waste to Wealth” and highlighted that the agro-industrial waste has the potential to be used for quality ingredients, Biopackaging materials and as other high value biomaterials. Dr. Tayzar Aye Cho, Research Scientist, Feed Technology Department, CP Foods PCL, Thailand presented on nutrient-gene interactions and their importance in managing health and sustainability. Similarly, Ms Manisha Singh, Research Scholar at RMIT University, Australia presented on role of plant-based bioactive molecules in obesity management. Mr Saugat Shrestha, Research Engineer, AIT Solutions, AIT highlighted the role of computational modeling and simulation in food processing for quality improvement and sustainable production.
Afternoon session was dedicated to involving the workshop participants to generate ideas based on the case studies and do the group wise pitching. Five groups were formed and at the end of the workshop, the two of them received “The Best IDEA” and “The Best PRESENTATION” award along with certificate of achievement and a cash prize each.
This workshop was organized under the project “Food Processing Innovation
(FOODI)”. FOODI is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme specifically to develop capacity building for higher education in Southeast Asia (SEA), especially incorporating cutting-edge technologies and innovation management in food processing with a view to turning the local food processing sector into a driver of social and economic growth. The FOODI consortium consists of 16 Institutions including 6 from EU and 10 from SEA. AIT is the first consortium partner to launch the academic program under the name of Food Innovation, Nutrition, and Health (The academic programme is created and developed within the framework of the project Erasmus+ Capacity Building-MSc Food Processing and Innovation (FOODI), reference number 598987 with a co-funding from the EU). Prof. Anil Kumar Anal is the PI of this project representing AIT in the FoodI Consortium.
