Rourkela: NIT Rourkela hosted a week-long India-Sri Lanka workshop from Sept 21 to 27 on sustainable technologies for reducing food industry waste and converting it into value-added products. Sponsored by the department of science and technology (DST), Govt of India, and supported by the ministry of science and technology, Sri Lanka, the discussions focused on zero-waste food production, biofertilisers, sustainable packaging, smart sensing, membrane separation and advanced food-processing technologies.The seven days workshop on “Advanced Thermal and Non-Thermal Sustainable Technologies for Food Industry Waste Reduction and Waste Valorization” was organised by the department of food process engineering, NITR. The programme was convened by Prof Winny Routray and Prof Rachna Sehrawat, with Prof Sabyasachi Mishra, HoD, food process engineering of NITR, serving as the programme chairperson.The visiting Sri Lankan experts represented the department of food science and technology, faculty of applied sciences, university of Sri Jayewardenepura; department of applied and natural sciences, university college matara; university of vocational technology; and faculty of life and medical sciences, BMS Campus. The delegation included Dr Dulani Somendrika, Prof Indira Wickramasinghe, Dr IG Gimanie Kasunmala and Mrs Chalani Akmeeman.Addressing the event, NIT Rourkela director Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao said innovation in food processing could improve resource efficiency, sustainability and value creation while strengthening international research partnerships. Experts from NIT Rourkela, IIT Patna, IIT Kharagpur, NIFTEM Kundli, ICAR institutes and industry participated in technical sessions on cleaner production and waste utilisation.Participants visited research facilities at the institute’s Central Research Facility. The workshop concluded with plans for collaborative research and academic exchanges between Indian and Sri Lankan institutions in sustainable food processing and waste valorisation.
