Dr V Prakash has been at the helm of affairs at CFRTI since the past ten years. An excellent scientist, a great visionary, he has been instrumental in steering the institute towards new standards of excellence by globalization of CFRTI technology. In recognition of his contribution to the food sciences he has been honored with the prestigious Padma Shree award. In an exclusive interview he elaborates on the role of the institute and the future of food based biotech research.

During the past five decades what have been the major areas of work at CFTRI?

This institute was established in 1950, about 54 years ago, which means that we are 54 years younger now. Our mandate initially was to ensure good nutritious food for the children and needy. So in the 1950's we worked more on that aspect. Then came the 1960's when the agriculture revolution happened. Therefore we were looking at value addition and preservation of grains. Like, for example, if you grow wheat or paddy how do you preserve it for one-two years? This was the mandate given to us. During the 70's tremendous amount of interaction took place between the industry and this institute. This interaction was the driving force for us to work upon newer products, byproducts, value efficiency products and also value addition to a number of agricultural commodities. For example nobody thought that we could take out rice bran oil from rice bran. Everybody thought of only rice and paddy, that's all, nothing else! I think the concept of byproduct utilization in the agriculture system came as a result in the 1970's and 80's.

In the 1990's the impact of molecular biology was felt. This impact took us into enzyme engineering, protein engineering, relooking at nucleic acids and even looking at nutrition from the metabolic point of view. Then from the late nineties the entire perspective has shifted to the level of molecular mechanisms. With the knowledge gained through biotechnology we can now ask fundamental questions like why does a mango ripen? Why can't we keep a banana green for 45 days? At CFTRI, scientists are working towards finding answers either to apoptosis or nutrigenomics or as to why can't we trigger the beta cells of islets of pancreas through an herbal system not as a drug but as food. So all these are being attacked now in a very vigorous manner. This is, in essence, the travel of the institute in the past 54 years in the biotechnology arena.

At the same time it is also important to realize that this requires a tremendous synergy of departments. At CFTRI there is no separate biotechnology department, but all the departments work on biotechnology. It is here that the synergy of engineering, the synergy of skill, of food safety and various other aspects is very vital. CFRTI provides all the necessary facilities for food technology and food biotechnology is just in one place. It is a one-stop center for food technology/biotechnology.

Which area of food biotechnology should India focus on?

India should focus on biotechnology and food technology to get into health foods. We have the advantage of a very rich heritage with a huge knowledge base. Also in India there is a large ethnic population of food and each one of them has a biotech angle to it. There are hundreds of fermented products in the country like idli, dosa, etc and each one is a huge biotechnology department with unbelievable information and so many reactions going on in it. Some of the products are highly traditional with the original (starter) cultures even preserved today, which are handed down from generation to generation just like in the case of French wines.

There are about 3,016 documented traditional foods in the country and there may be another couple of thousands undocumented. And a large number of these are biotech in nature. For example, even pickling is a biotech process. We do not understand the biotechnology involved because we take it for granted. Now the question is are we optimizing these processes? How do we make them better? All this knowledge has to be formalized, made reproducible and hygienic. I see a very good potential in this area. Tomorrow food technology in this country related to biotechnology is on the health basis. We should focus on this as we have the required expertise, the database, the tradition and the biodiversity. There exists a large opportunity not only from the business point of view but also from the point of usefulness to the end consumer.

How many biotech related patents have been filed at CFTRI? Has there been a deliberate shift towards more patents?

It is very difficult to distinguish between biotechnology and other patents. But roughly if you see there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of patents related to biotechnology. We have got an increase of about 3-3.5 fold patents in the area of biotech over the last five years. I would also say that it is also very difficult to do continuous innovations in biotechnology unlike in engineering or in chemistry as it is a natural process going on. Patenting is an emerging system that is happening now and it is not so easy to quickly file a patent and say that the number has increased. It is a demand driven process where the quality and the nature of innovation matter a lot.

On the whole I do not see any deliberate move towards more patents. People do not work for IPR. IPR results in seeing what one has worked for. But of course in some areas one might have to deliberately work for an IPR. For example the Basmati, on which India won a patent. Now we should be very careful that any further research that we do on Basmati should be clearly linked to an IPR so that others do not have an edge. As such in pure science, nothing is deliberate, it is mainly knowledge driven. Sometimes there are some deliberate intentional pushes but the intention is not just patenting but more of innovation. The key point is innovation and biotechnology related to food technology is the uniqueness of CFTRI. And our focus is on innovation related to biotechnology serving the cause of food.