Bread is a popular breakfast item, convenient and popular. The demand for the same is increasing day to day. Normal white bread is made of wheat flour, which is deficient of many nutrients. Nutrient supplementation can be done and it can act as a vehicle for the promotion of nutrients. In view of the newer trends in diversification of bakery products, composite bread containing millets such as Ragi / Bajara have great scope. Ragi / Bajara flour which is rich in many macro and micro nutrients when incorporated partly by replacing the flour can increase the nutritional value of the bread. This finely ground ragi/ bajara flour is blended with wheat flour and the dough is prepared. Further the dough is fermented, divided, proved, baked, sliced and packed. The technology can be utilized in the rural sector at the cottage/family scale units.

The convenience flour is suitable for the preparation of stiff porridge (mudde). The flour can also be conveniently used in the preparations like roti and such other products. The convenience flour should be packed in containers, which will safeguard the hygienic, nutritional and organoleptic qualities of the product. Product should be stored in cool and dry place.

Cookie is a small flat, baked product, commonly called biscuit. Cookie usually prepared from wheat flour, eggs, sugar and fat, sometimes toppings with raisins, oats or chocolate chips. Generally, wheat is one of the cereals used extensively throughout the world for the preparation of cookie. But cookie from non-wheat cereals like rice, jowar, maize or millet is uncommon. Recently, millets are gaining importance because they can offer several nutraceuticals, and also being rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. Its protein has a beneficial influence on the metabolism of cholesterol. Cereal or millet cookie is made from a fine flour of millet with leavening and shortenings. There exists, however considerable potential for large scale manufacture and marketing of shelf-stable product utilizing underutilized grains like proso or foxtail millet as the demand for ready-to-eat convenience food products has been steadily increasing, consequent to industrialization and convenience in using. The product can be consumed during tea time or in between the meal.

Finger millet or ragi has an outer seed coat which is colored and fibrous in nature and affects the eating qualities of the product. These limitations have been overcome by adopting the process which removes or decorticates the seed coat and result in spherical grains. The decorticated ragi cooks within 5 min. in boiling water and the grains retain their shape with soft texture even after cooking. The cooked grains are suitable for consumption similar to rice along with sambar or can be seasoned with spice to prepare chitranna or tamarind rice. Alternately, the decorticated millet could be cracked to soji or semolina. It can also be popped to prepare the product similar to ‘rice poori’ or expanded rice or could be flaked for use as breakfast cereal.

Milled rice is commonly processed to obtain expanded ready-to-eat grain. Nutritionally superior millets like bajra can also be expanded after appropriate processing. The processed bajra grains expanded to full capacity, with acceptable appearance and texture. Crispness retained when embedded in Jaggery or coco massExpanded grains can be used as breakfast cereals, snacks, health food formulations and adjuncts in confectioneries.

Snacks are made from ragi flour to develop ready-to-eat snack products. Products are suitable as a low-fat snack which provides a good shelf-life without sacrificing the attractive texture and taste of a crispy snack. Product can be consumed as any time snack. Products are cost-effective and can also be considered as a health food (low fat-high fiber). In addition, fried chips also can be manufactured in same process lines.

Expanded ragi is a new and novel product from finger millet. It is similar to expanded rice and can be incorporated into health bars, supplementary foods etc. Expanded ragi can be coated to prepare sweet or spicy products.

The jowar or sorghum snack is a ready-to-eat (RTE) product with either sweet or salt spicy in taste. It is suitable as a low-fat snack because the step of frying in oil fat has been omitted to provide a good shelf-life without sacrificing the attractive taste and texture of eating a crispy snack. The unit operation involved in the process is grading, roasting, flavoring, coating, drying and packing.

Germinated Ragi is rich in nutrients and has improved functional and sensory properties. Through optimization of technological interventions like germination, dehydration, roasting / toasting and size reduction convenience foods like Germinated whole ragi drink mix and Convenience Puttu flower can be made.

Noodles or vermicelli are popular ready-to-cook products, normally prepared from wheat worldwide. There is growing interest on noodles from millets due to their nutraceutical content and the health benefits. Hence, noodles based on ragi (finger millet) and pulse flour was prepared. The product will be of low in cost and can be considered as health food (low fat and high fibre). The noodles/vermicelli prepared exhibit good cooking and textural properties and may be used in any type of pasta dish--soups, stews etc. The noodles prepared can be used to make a variety of food and snack products like chaw-chaw, fried noodles. The noodles can be deep fat fried to a crispy snack, cooked in water and seasoned to soft snack, or boiled in milk and sugar to make a sweet dish. Since, both ragi and soy are good source of minerals (rich in Ca, K and Zn) and nutraceutical (polyphenols, dietary fibre) the protein rich ragi vermicelli will offer several health benefits to the consumer.

Pasta is known as one of the most ancient nourishment and as a very versatile dish, both from nutritive and gastronomic points of view. Nutritionist considers pasta as highly digestible. It also provides significant quantities of complex carbohydrates, protein, B-vitamins and iron and is low in sodium, amino acids and total fat. Recent developments in pasta products include attempts to improve the nutritional properties of pasta by the addition of supplements from various natural sources. The use of pasta products is more wide spread in the world because pasta products are simpler to make and quick to serve, if dried can be conveniently stored for a relatively long period of time without deterioration. The developed multigrain pasta formulation (based on millets, durum semolina and permitted additives) could be used to supplement the nutritional requirements of growing children and adults. The multigrain pasta has increased fiber and mineral content by 4-5% compared to normal pasta. It can be consumed along with tastemaker as a break fast cereal/snack.

Ragi/Sorghum/wheat, and rice, pulse and nuts based ready to cook mix for preparation of halva. Process involves grain size reduction, hydrothermal and thermal treatment and blending with ingredients.

A nutritious millet with 344 mg of calcium, 288 mg of phosphorus, 3.9 mg iron and 11.5 g dietary fibre.The Phytates, polyphenols and tannins contribute to antioxidant activity & important for health, aging and metabolic diseases. Gluten free muffins for normal people and celiac disease patients 1.5 times more dietary fiber, double the amount of phosphorus, 17 times higher calcium than wheat flour muffins.

The prominent small millets are foxtail, finger, little, proso, barnyard and kodo millet. All these grains, except for finger millet, contain a non edible husk as a distinct part, which needs dehusking, similar to paddy, before consumption. Unlike the major cereals, the milling machineries for dehusking and polishing of small millets are not fully developed. In this connection, preparation of husk free flour from small millets using roller mill was developed. In this process, the husked millet grains are directly milled using roller milling technology. In addition, the same mill is used to produce the semolina (sooji & rava) from the different dehusked millets and multi-millet semolina prepared. This semolina can be used as alternative to wheat semolina for the preparation of upma, halva and other traditional food products.

Small millets are the staple food for millions. Their slow digestibility and nutritive value makes them one or the most preferred commodities among health conscious population also. A few important small millets are: foxtail millet, kodo millet, little millet, banyard millet and proso millet. Farmers growing these millets also consume it themselves and one of the major bottlenecks is the non availability of small scale mills. With an aim to reduce the drudgery of milling, a pedal operated millet dehuller was developed by CSIR – CFTRI. Being manually operated, this system is ideally suited for the rural sector. This system has an impact type dehusker and a product collection system. The unit can be easily assembled as all the components are available locally. The unit is easy to operate and maintain.

Finger millet or ragi (Eleusine coracana) is one of the important minor cereals. It is a nutritious grain and contains about 7% protein, 1.5% fat, and is a good source of calcium, dietary fiber and other protective nutrients. The health benefits of the millets are being recognized globally and non-traditional millet consumers are also looking for ready-to-use foods from the millet. Finger millet flakes are ready-to-use convenience products similar to rice, wheat and sorghum flakes. The flakes could be wetted with water and seasoned with spicy condiments, or sweetened for consumption as snacks. The thicker grade flakes may be deep fat fried or toasted to crispy textured products, and ready-to-eat snacks. The broken and pulverized flakes can be mixed with legumes and other ingredients to prepare traditional foods like bisibele bhath, idli and such other products. These flakes can also be used after toasting or blistering similar to corn flakes.

It is a ready mix for preparation of murukku, made from cereal flour either alone or blending with pulse flours. The blend after mixing with salt and spices is made into dough and deep fat fried to an attractive crispy snack. Even though the product is all time snack, it is commonly used as an evening snack along with tea/ coffee. Since, the product is an energy rich snack; it is an ideal snack for school children. The shelf-life of the mix is nearly 6 months with FFA content less than 10% when stored at ambient conditions.

It is a ready-to-fry crisp snack food adjunct. It is made from cooked dough containing cereal flour like ragi, rice, maize, sorghum, wheat flour or sago either alone or as blends with other pulse flours along with salt, khar and spices. It is deep fat fried to a attractive crispy wafer like product that is commonly used as an adjunct to a full meal.

Cereal or millet roti is made from cooked dough containing the cereal or millet flour alone or as blends with other pulse flours. It is ready to eat shelf stable unleavened flat bread. There exists, however considerable potential for large scale manufacture and marketing of shelf – stable roti/ chapati, as the demand for ready to eat convenience food products has been steadily increasing, consequent to industrialization and convenience in using. The product can be consumed during meal time. In addition, the products are cost – effective and can also be considered as a health food (low fat high protein). The product can be shelf stored for twelve days at ambient condition or 2 months at refrigerate condition.

A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food. It is a popular baked product liked by all, especially children and working class, both in rural and urban sector. It is also a tea time snack which is yeast leavened containing 50% of 95% extraction ragi flour along with wheat flour. The crumb is pinkish brown colour, pleasant flavour and crisp texture with a moisture content of about 4%.

Beverages are a class of convenient foods, which are either in ready-to-drink form or in powder form, and can easily be reconstituted with milk or water before consumption. Beverages can be classified as specialty foods that provide energy and some of the essential nutrients like proteins, minerals and vitamins. These foods offer energy and nutrition to the consumers and help them to overcome fatigue and convalescence in the form of liquid food supplement. These foods are generally taken as refreshing beverages. Most of the beverage formulations marketed in India and abroad are based on malt extract from barley and wheat solids.
Ragi is known to contain good amount of calcium and sulfur amino acids. Besides, ragi in the malt form can be an excellent cereal base for products like beverages and hence preparation of an instant beverage based on ragi malt was developed. It was blended with a small proportion of barley & protein concentrate to make a product with a desirable nutritional profile.

It is a ready mix for preparation of instant porridge, upmav, keshribath or like some other breakfast foods. It is made from cereal like ragi, rice, maize, jowar, foxtail millet, proso millet etc. This product is made for various reasons a) to prevent lump formation of the constituents of powder mix b) to avoid the smaller and/or denser particles to concentrate at the bottom of the container or with the larger and/or less dense ones on the top. The product can be introduced as the multigrain instant semolina. The process allows the creation of a slow digestible instant product suitable for obese, overweight and weight watchers. The process provides a healthy food product, which is low in fat but rich in protein and dietary fiber. The semolina product can be shelf stored for more than 4 months at ambient conditions.

Jowar flakes are a new type of products. They are not traditional like rice flakes which are known since time immemorial. But jowar flakes are produced on the same lines as rice flakes are produced. The coarse nature of the grain has been the cause for not making the jowar flakes. The flakes were being produced in the olden days by pounding. As jowar is a coarse grain, it was difficult to pound. With the advent of modern machines, flaking has become easy paving way for the production of jowar flakes. Thus, the CFTRI has developed a process for producing jowar flakes. It is suitable specially for preparing deep fat fried (chewda) products such as fried and seasoned mixture. It is also suitable for preparing toasted and seasoned mixtures, energy food, tamarind bhath, upma, sweet/savoury, pongal, sweet gravy (payasam), etc. For the preparation of bhath the flake thickness should be about 0.5 mm and about 0.8 mm to 1.0 mm for the preparation of chewda.

Finger millet or ragi is one of the important minor cereals of India and Africa. It has the uniqueness of being used for malting next only to barley in the tropical world. The millet is a good source of dietary carbohydrates, protein, calcium and micronutrients and hence, its malt is also a good source of protein, carbohydrates and many other nutrients besides hydrolytic enzymes.Malted ragi flour can be used in preparation of weaning food, infant food, geriatric food, medical foods and also as milk based as well as alcoholic beverage formulations. It can be used as amylase rich food (ARF) to reduce the ‘dietary bulk’ of energy food and such other supplementary foods. By products like seed coat & rootlets can be utilized in Cattle and Poultry feed formulations.

Wheat semolina forms an important basic raw material in the preparation of several Indian traditional food products such as sweet and savoury breakfast foods and pasta products. Rapid urbanization, industrialization and consequent changes in eating habits of people have lead to development of instant dry mixes and ready-to-eat convenience foods. Dry mixes of several traditional Indian foods such as upma mix, halva mix, idli mix, vada mix, have gained worldwide popularity. Most of these food products available in the market are wheat and rice based. Millets are rich sources of various nutrients and now receiving increasing interest from food scientists and technologists. The millets have remained underutilized due to lack of technology or some inherent shortcomings into the instant mixes.
The developed process and products are novel and have potential for marketing as health and wellness product providing and alternative to wheat semolina. The dry mixes developed from this process are developed for the individual millet or the multi-millet formulation. These products are gluten free providing scope for providing the alternative food for the persons with gluten intolerance. Also, the demand for healthy and nutritious foods is expected to increase due to increasing cases of lifestyle diseases. Hence the developed instant mixes will provide a healthier alternative to existing products and opportunity to launch of new product in health and wellness segment.

The health and wellness food market in India has witnessed significant growth over the past few years. A number of food manufacturers are introducing healthier variants of their existing products. Multi-millet semolina product features a combination of semolina from the different millet such as foxtail, little, proso, barnyard and kodo millet with a beneficial nutritional profile. The millets like foxtail, little, proso, barnyard and kodo etc. vary in their nutritional composition. Some are stronger in one nutrient and others in different nutrients. In addition to their nutritive value, several potential health benefits such as preventing cancer and cardiovascular diseases, reducing tumor incidence, lowering blood pressure, risk of heart disease, cholesterol and rate of fat absorption, delaying gastric emptying, and supplying gastrointestinal bulk have been reported for millets. The benefits of multimillet semolina are the combination of various nutritional benefits of different millets.
Semolina from the different individual millets and multi-millet can be used for the preparation of various traditional food products. The coarse semolina (sooji) and fine semolina (rava) from millets can be used for the preparation of upma and halva as an alternative to wheat semolina.

Whole cereal based multi grain mix which can be mixed with milk and cooked in 3minutes to use as drink or beverage. Rich in proteins, fibre, iron, thiamine, vitamin and natural antioxidants. Whole grains of sorghum, pearl, ragi, wheat, maize, barley, pulse & nuts optimally roasted and balanced blend pulverized, size separated and packed.

Bajra (Pennisetum glaucum L Rbr.) or Bajra usually grows in areas with low rainfall and poor irrigation facilities. Bajra constitutes one of the most important foods for millions of underprivileged sections of the population and India is the largest producer of Bajra. The grain is ground to whole grain flour and consumed in the form of roti (unleavened pancake). The major setback of storing Bajra milled products like flour and semolina is the development of rancidity within few days of storage due to lipolytic action. Free fatty acid content increases within short storage duration of 5-15 days hence, these grains are milled as and when required.
Hydrothermal treatment was developed to enhance the shelf-life of milled products of bajra like flour and semolina. Shelf-stable Bajra flour has a storage period of 3-4 months. The roti prepared from the processed flour is soft and lighter in colour, the dough also has better rolling properties. With the increased shelf- life and quality characteristics, the product can be manufactured and marketed as a regular commodity like maida and wheat flour, etc.

Sorghum or Jowar is generally ground to whole grain flour as and when required in small quantities by traditional consumers. The major setback of storing of Jowar flour is the development of rancidity within few days of storage. The process developed at CFTRI involves a standardized process where in a shelf stable Jowar flour is obtained, which has a storage period of 6-8 months. The rotis prepared from the process flour is soft and lighter in colour, the dough also has better rolling properties. With the increased shelf life and quality characteristics, the product can be manufactured and marketed as a regular commodity like maida, ragi flour etc.