M Madhava Naidu
CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, India
Title: Spice and wellness: Current practice and future prospective
Biography
Biography: M Madhava Naidu
Abstract
Spices are a group of secretive food adjuncts that have been in use for centuries to enhance the sensory quality of foods. The word ‘spice’ is synonymous with anything that creates a piquant effect. Although spices have never been considered to contribute anything to human nutrition, this group of food adjuncts has been used in human diets for centuries as flavour modifiers to make food more palatable. India has been the house of many important spices like turmeric, pepper, ginger, garlic, cardamom and chilli. India, with its favorable climatic conditions for growing spices, is the largest producer and consumer of spices. During 2015-16, India targeted to export an estimated 12 lakh tonnes of spices and spice products, which are worth more than US$ 2500 million. Dehydrated spices with their bioactive constituents have been shown to have good consumer acceptance as well as shelf life and could serve as a valuable food additive to enhance human nutrition. With the increasing interest in the beneficial role of spice nutraceuticals in health, an in-depth study of the bioactive constitutents of spices assumes significant prominence. In this focus, Department of Spice & Flavour Science, CSIR-CFTRI conducts basic research on spice chemistry, and also involved in the development of new spice-based products, and spice processing machineries. With this background, the main foci of this presentation is to provide a comprehensive review on the recent research/technologies on spice processing, including value addition and its nutraceutical applications and their relationships with human wellbeing.