The document discusses designer foods and their potential role in addressing malnutrition and non-communicable diseases in India. It provides examples of different types of designer foods such as designer milk, eggs, broccoli, probiotic yogurt, and meat that are modified or fortified with specific nutrients to provide targeted health benefits. The document also discusses other approaches for tackling health issues like biofortification, food fortification, nutraceuticals, personalized nutrition using 3D food printing. It provides details on the formulation process and health benefits of various designer foods.

1. Designer food vis-à-vis Human Health:
Perspective and a Way Forward
“Leave your drug in the chemist’s pot
if you can heal the patient with food”
- Hippocrates

2. Overview of Presentation
 Scenario of Indian agriculture and food processing sector
 Scenario of heath condition of Indian population
 Approaches to tackle malnutrition/NCDs
• Biofortification
• Fortification
• Designer food
• Nutraceuticals
• Personalized nutrition
• 3D food printing
 Conclusion

3. Scenario of Indian agriculture
 About 58% of our population use agriculture for their livelihood
 Total production during 2021-22 in million tonnes:
Food grain : 316 and Horticultural produce: 330
 Having 2nd largest arable land in the world
 Having almost all agro-climatic zones
 Largest producer of:
milk, millet, ginger, banana, mangoes, sunflower, papaya, pulses
 Second largest for:
onion, garlic, wheat, potato, tomato, sugarcane, rice
3

4. Food Processing Sector - Indian Perspective
 Processing level in India is only 8-10% as compared to USA
& Malaysia- 80%, France-75%
 Changing life style with both the gender engaged as working
force
 We need to feed about 1.7 billion people by 2050
 Postharvest losses in double digit
 Need to double the farmers income by 2022
 Need of the hour
 Changing paradigm shift from livelihood agriculture to
business model 4

5. Malnutrition - Indian Perspective
 Ranks 94th among 107 countries in Global hunger index
 India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025 (Global
Nutrition Report 2020)
 India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators i.e.,
(1) Stunting among children under-5 (2) Anemia among women of reproductive age (3)
Childhood overweight (4) Exclusive breastfeeding
5
WHO global nutrition target for 2025:
• Stunting : 40% reduction in children under-5
• Anemia: 50% reduction of anemia in women of
reproductive age
• Low birth weight: 30% reduction in low birth weight
• Childhood overweight: No increase in childhood
overweight
• Breastfeeding: Increase the rate of exclusive
breastfeeding in the first 6 months up to at least 50%
• Wasting: Reduce and maintain childhood wasting to
less than 5%
Source: NFHS 4: 2014-15 and NFHS 5: 2019-20

6. Prevalence of stunting in Indian
districts (Menon et al., 2018)

7. Noncommunicable diseases- Indian Perspective
 Contributing 7.8% of the global cancer burden (as a single country out of the
184 countries) (WHO, 2020)
 Diabetes capital of the world (around 77 million diabetic people)
 Ranks 2nd in cardiovascular disease and contributes approximately 25-30% of the
global heart disease burden
7
Source: WHO (2018)

8. Food v/s Diet
 Food is any edible material that supports growth, repair and maintenance of the
body and we consume to fulfill our daily requirement of nutrition
 Major food components are
 Protein
 Carbohydrates
 Fat
 Minerals
 vitamins and water
 The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or
health-management reasons
(with the two often being related). 8

9. Healthy Diets
Maintaining normal or boosting up immune system
Prevention of disorders/diseases
Delaying of onset of disease
Reducing drug usage
Promoting efficient drug utilization
Prevents malnutrition
Prevents non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, hypertension
9

10. Approaches to tackle malnutrition/NCDs
 Bio-fortification
• Amino acid biofortification in sorghum and cassava
• Zinc and iron biofortification in cereal grains
 General food fortification
• Staple foods fortification (wheat, rice, milk, vegetable oils, salt)
 Designer foods
• Designer egg/yoghurt/meat etc
 Nutraceuticals
 Personalized nutrition
• 3D food printing

11. Biofortification
Common examples of
• Iron biofortification – Rice, sweet potato, beans, legumes
• Zinc biofortification – Rice, wheat, sweet potato, maize, beans
• Provitamin A carotenoid biofortification – Cassava, maize, sweet potato
• Amino acid and protein biofortification – Cassava, sorghum
Genetic
engineering
Plant-
breeding
Biofortification
Agronomic
approaches

12. Source: Ayoub et al. (2020)

13. Food Fortification
 The practice of deliberately increasing the content of an
essential micronutrients in food irrespective of whether the
nutrients were originally in the food before processing or
not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food”
 High benefit-to-cost ratio

14. Contd…
 Every 1 Rupee spent on fortification results in 9 Rupees in
benefits to the economy (Copenhagen Consensus )
Iodine and
iron
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Staple food fortification

15. General rice fortification process
Source – Food Fortification
Resourse Centre, FSSAI

16. Source :- Goytha et al. (2020)
Liquid milk is normally fortified with oily vitamins
- A small aliquot of cold milk is mixed in a separate
tank with the oily vitamin milk fortification premix
- The pre-blend is then added to the milk aliquot
- The milk/vitamin pre-blend is homogenized before
adding it to the bulk milk
MILK FORTIFICATION WITH VITAMIN A & VITAMIN D
1) Liquid milk fortification
FSSAI recommendations:
- Vitamin A- 770 IU (Source- Retinyl acetate, Retinyl
palmitate and Retinyl propionate)
- Vitamin D- 550IU (Cholecalciferol, Ergocalciferal)
Milk Fortification
Premix

17. - Mix powder vitamins with an aliquot
of milk
- To speed up dissolution, the
temperature can be increased to 40-
45°c
- After powder being properly dispersed
the pre-blend is added to the bulk milk
*It is not necessary to homogenize before
adding to the bulk milk
2) Dried milk fortification
Source :- Goytha et al. (2020) ;Pristine
premixes
FSSAI recommendations:
- Vitamin A- 770 IU (Source- Retinyl acetate, Retinyl
palmitate and Retinyl propionate)
- Vitamin D- 550IU (Cholecalciferol, Ergocalciferal)

18. General oil fortification process General salt fortification process
Source –FFRC, FSSAI

19. Designer food
 The term “Designer Foods” was firstly used by the National Cancer Institute
(Bethesda, Maryland)
 Possesses components(s) acting individually, additively or synergistically,
usually as component(s) of whole food or added thereon, that have the
characteristic of providing protective, preventative and possibly curative
roles in addition to basic energy requirements
Definition (Rajasekaran et al., 2013)
The processed foods that are supplemented/enriched/fortified or
tailored with food ingredients naturally rich in disease-
preventing substances (i.e. natural foods containing health
promoting ingredients or provide enhanced health benefits in
addition to the typical essential nutrients, such as vitamins
and minerals ) are known as designer foods

20. Potential role of designer food

21. Benefits of Designer foods
Potential to serve people
without demanding a change in
dietary habits/patterns
On regular basis recommended
amount of ingredients (RDA)
can be delivered
Easy to use with existing
systems of food processing and
distributions

22. General process for formulation of designer food

23. 1. Designer Milk
 A milk designed to suit consumer preference
 The “designer milk” may be rich in specific milk
components that may have influence on well‐being or on
processing
Some designer food formulation

24. Opportunities for “designing” milk
Modifications Benefits
Fat Modification
Remove/reduce fat Low‐fat milk and products, caters to the
health‐conscious consumers
Alter the fatty acid chain
length
Increased nutrition, better manufacturing
properties, better product quality
Increase CLA levels in milk
Anticarcinogenic and other therapeutic
properties
Alter proportion of ω‐6 to ω‐3
fatty acids
Regulate heart health
Carbohydrate
modification
Overexpress β‐galactosidase
enzyme
Better lactose digestibility, caters to the
lactose‐intolerant customers
Remove α‐LA, produce
lactase by transgenic
technology
Reduced synthesis of lactose
Source: Sabikhi et al. (2007)

25. Contd….
Modifications Benefits
Protein modification
Increase amino acids content,
casein
Increased protein, better processing
properties, better nutrition
Remove β‐LG
Less milk allergies, better processing
properties
Modify bovine milk to
simulate human milk
Better infant health, less mortality, less
problems due to milk allergy
Miscellaneous
Produce in milk antibodies,
antimicrobials against
pathogens
Safer food, prevention of mastitis and
other diseases
Produce spider silk in milk Industrial applications
Source: Sabikhi et al. (2007)

26. 2. Designer egg
 Modified fatty acid composition of egg yolk
 High omega-3 fatty acid (PUFA) and HDL
 Lowered yolk cholesterol
 Replacement of cholesterol with CLA (conjugated linoleic acid)
 High in naturally occurring antioxidants (vitamin E),
selenium and carotenoids

27. Modified Ingredients Potential health benefits
↑Omega-3 fatty acids
Management of Cardiovascular disease,
Anti-Arrhythmic Potential and
Vasodilatation
Vitamin E
Antioxidant activity; free radicals
reduction
Selenium Preventing cardiac muscle degeneration
HDL (High density lipoproteins) Good cholesterol; Hypercholesterolemia
Carotenoids Antioxidants/ enhances immunity
Source : Rajasekaran et al. (2013)

28. 3. Designer broccoli
 Known for its chemo-preventive property
 Contains elevated levels of Glucoraphanin
 Fortified with Selenium
Modified Ingredients Health benefits
Glucoraphanin
(*Sulforphane a
chemopreventive
isothiocyanate, derived from
glucoraphanin hydrolysis by
myrosinase)
Reduce the risk of cancer
Selenium
Antioxidant / anti-
carcinogenic/ Immune
booster
Stimulate nervous system
and prevent mental decline
Preventing cardiac muscle
degeneration
Source : Rajasekaran et al. (2013)

29. 4. Designer probiotic yoghurt
Probiotic yoghurt fortified with
apple pomace
Propolis (0.03%) and cinnamon
containing probiotic yoghurt
Gunes-Bayir et al. (2021)
Jovanović et al. (2020)
*Other than live microorganisms yoghurt can
also be fortified with other bioactive
ingredients

30. General health benefits of probiotics

31. 5. Monascus fermented rice
 Involves fermentation of rice with fungi Monascus sp
 Leads to fortification of rice with active constituents such as monacolins
and γ - amino butyric acid (GABA)
Source : Wen et al. (2020)

32. Tailored Ingredients Health benefits
Monacolin
Lowers blood cholesterol level (LDL, or
"bad") and triglyceride level
γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
Immunomodulation, anti-anxiety, anti-
inflammatory, anti-diabetes, combat
hypertension and stress, cirrhosis
Source : Wen et al. (2020)

33. 6. Phytosterols enriched foods
Phytosterol ester-enriched
 Milk and Yoghurt
 Margarine
Due to chemical resemblance to cholesterol and similar structure
phytosterol inhibits cholesterol absorption
Martianto et al. (2021)

34. 7. Designer meat
To prevent cardiac muscle degeneration, treat muscle dystrophy,
Tailored Ingredients Health benefits
Selenium To prevent cardiac muscle degeneration,
treat muscle dystrophy,
Omega 3 Fatty acids To reduce the risk of cardiovascular
disease
Dietary fibre Normalizes bowel movements, add bulk
to stool, maintain bowel health.
Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar level
May be rich in either
• Selenium
• Omega 3 fatty acid
• Dietary fiber
• B-complex vitamins
Rajasekaran et al. (2013)

35. Nutraceuticals
 A NEUTRACEUTICAL is any substance that is a food or a part of food and
provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of
disease
“let the food be your medicine” Prebiotics/Probiotics
Dietary
fibers
Antioxidants
Flavonoids/phytosterols
PUFA/MUF
A
Polyphenols

36. Examples of food sources and their respective bioactive compounds
Dzuvor et. al (2018)

37. Bioactive compounds and potential health benefits
Finch et. al (2018)

38. Personalized nutrition
 A diet addressed to an individual, based upon her/his genotype,
nutritional requirements and other factors (age and gender)
 Nutrigenetics (role of DNA sequence variation in the responses to
nutrients) and nutrigenomics (role of nutrients in gene expression ) are
important in personalized nutrition for optimal health and disease
prevention
 An important strategy of 21st century for personalized nutrition is 3D
food printing

39. 3D Food Printing
 Also known as additive manufacturing (AM) and rapid
prototyping (RP)

40.  A programmable robotic construction process characterized by a
layer by layer material deposition approach building up
complex solid forms from pre-designed configuration and
utilize phase transitions to bind different layers
3D printed
food
Athletes Patients
Defense
Personnel
Children
Elderly
people
Space
missions
Personalized
nutrition
Patients' feeding is more dignified and 3D food printing enable them to socialize
and consume meals that look, feel and taste like regular food

41. Selective sintering
3D printing technologies

42. Extrusion based 3D printing
 In extrusion the melted semi-solid slurry or thermoplastic material is extruded
out in a continuous manner from the movable nozzle under certain pressure
and accumulated by preceding layers
 Extrusion 3D printing
 Hot-melt extrusion
 Cold extrusion
Source: Sun et al. (2018)

43. General concept of extrusion 3D printing and major
considerations *

44. Potato puree and mushroom based 3D printed
snacks: (O'Neal, 2020)
Potato waste based 3D printed and microwave
processed food: (Neal et al., 2020)

45. Binder jetting
 Powdered material is deposited layer by layer followed by selective
ejection of a low viscosity binder over layers to get the desired shape.
 Binder is ejected based on shape of object being printed covering
respective cross-sections to let them fuse or “bond” together
Source: (Peng, Zhou, Jerry, Hong, and Annette, 2015)

46. 1. Coffee cups printed out of ground
coffee
2. Cocoa and coffee printed
structures
Source: Holland et al. (2019) Source: Jason Mosbrucker, 3Dible.co.
Source: Holland et al. (2019)
3. 3D printed chocolate

47. Inkjet printing
 Uses piezoelectric head through which the stream of droplets dispenses over
specific regions for surface filling or decoration of formulated product. It is
mainly done in case of cookies, pizzas, pastries and cakes
 Good printing quality and rapid fabrication
Source: (Peng, Zhou, Jerry, Hong, and Annette, 2015)
3D chocolate graphical designing
Source: Mantihal et al. (2020)

48. Selective sintering
 Power laser or hot air is used as sintering source which selectively fuse the powder
particles together in consecutive layer by scanning the cross-sections to construct the 3D-
object
 After spreading a fresh layer of powder, sintering source (laser/hot air) moves along the
axes to fuse powder particles and allow binding to construct a layer
 Process continuous till the final 3D fabricated object is constructed
 Selective sintering classification (on basis of sintering source)
Source: Mantihal et al. (2020)
Selective (hot air)
sintering Selective (laser)
sintering

49. Selective (hot air) sintering Selective (laser) sintering

51. 3D printed food application for Sarcopenic (muscle loss) patients
Selection of
ingredients
*As per nutrients
requirement
• Protein rich (High quality proteins)
• EAA, leucine, HMB and vitamin D
• Selenium, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty
acid
Food ink
formulation
• Mixing of
ingredients
3D design
preparation
• Using software
Food printing
• Regulation
of printing
parameters
3D printed food
• Enhanced visual
appearance
• More appelaing
• Better nutrition

52. Selection of ingredients
*As per nutrients
requirement
• Pureed
Food ink
formulation
• Mixing of
ingredients
3D design
preparation
• Using software
Food printing
• Regulation of
printing parameters
3D printed food
• More appealing
• Better nutrition
3D printed food application for Dysphagic (swallowing difficulties)
patients

53. Conclusion
 Combating malnutrition and non-communicable diseases is
easier said than done
 The designer food can successfully help in combating such
problems because of its mass applicability, low investment
and requirement of negligible changes in the dietary habits
of the peoples