New Delhi: In another effort to increase the income of farmers, the central government is now also focusing on giving more encouragement to the food processing industry. Under this, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries has decided to increase the number of irradiation units in the country.

In these units, the period of safe storage of agricultural produce and food items treated with gamma-rays will increase, and farmers will also get the benefit of reduced cost of storing these items free from any kind of chemicals in cold storage etc. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has recently announced to set up 50 new irradiation units in the country. For this, proposals have been sought from private companies.

The representative of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay Mumbai, who came to World Food India, told that in the irradiation unit, the food item is only passed through gamma-rays. This radiation has no effect on the food item, rather it becomes safe from micro-organisms and germs. The storage period increases. There is no change in its taste or texture during storage.

Along with this, the cost of storing the material in cold storage etc. decreases. For example, if potatoes need to be stored at a temperature of five to six degrees, then the same material can be stored at a temperature of 14-15 degrees after irradiation. This saves a lot of electricity.

The representative of Bhabha Atomic Research Center said that the target is to increase the number of units to 500 in future. It is noteworthy that from 2000 to 2024, only 28 irradiation units have been established in the country.