Akash Kaushal M B, a master’s student from Professor Mohammed Farid’s group won the New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Masters Prize in Engineering, awarded to recognise excellence in the field of Engineering. Akash worked on the project titled ‘High Pressure Processing in Infusion and Gelatinization: An application on Rice’. The research work was focused on retention of micronutrients in white rice through the application of the high-pressure processing technology. White rice loses most of its nutrients through the processing stages of husking and polishing. High pressure processing technology results in the gelatinization of white rice and hence enables the infusion of nutrients from the outer layers to the core i.e., white rice.

The project received further funding from the Food and Health Programme, and the research work was extended to the fortification of white rice with micronutrients using high pressure processing. Akash continued the work he started as a Research Assistant.

For more details of the research work please refer to the associated publications:

Enrichment of rice with natural thiamine using high-pressure processing (HPP)

A Review on the Effect of High Pressure Processing (HPP) on Gelatinization and Infusion of Nutrients

Effect of high pressure impregnation on micronutrient transfer in rice