To begin with the department provided only the B. Tech course whereas the M.Tech course was initiated 3 years later. Biochemical Engineering is very significant area of study. The food industry which play significant role in the production and marketing of agricultural products is based on organic living materials. This makes increased demands on the resources of the department, which it has tried to mobilise. The department provides modernized facilities freezing, canning, extrusion, preservation by fermentation, fermentative production of enzymes, chemicals and antibiotics, processing of cereals, legume and oil seeds. To cope up with the latest developments, the department maintains contact with both national and international agencies and research.
Jadavpur University is known to have introduced for the first time in India, a course in Food Technology at the undergraduate level in the year 1948 which translated to the creation of the Department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering (FTBE) in 1964, amalgamating two disciplines, highly significant in the context of our agro-based, natural resource-rich country. 3-year B.Tech in FTBE was since then been offered, the pioneer course of these disciplines in the country then. M. Tech in FTBE was successfully introduced three years later. Since 2011, we have been upgraded to offer a 4-year B.E in FTBE.
Food Technology is a highly interdisciplinary stream that embraces theories of Food Science, Food Chemistry, Food Microbiology, and Food Biochemistry and their transmutation into industrial processing of agro-based raw materials such as processing of cereals, legumes, and pulses; dairy products; fats, and oils; spices and herbs, inclusive of waste processing. The biochemical engineering discipline encompasses Biochemistry, Fermentation, Microbial Genetics, and Fermenter Design aimed towards the production of life-saving biochemicals including enzymes, antibiotics, vaccines, and plant tissue culture products.
Currently, FTBE has expanded to the fields of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Green Technologies of processing such as supercritical CO2 extraction, gamma-irradiation processing, cold-plasma processing; development of Nutraceutical Foods, and Therapeutic products for mitigation of metabolic disorders, to highlight a few.
Our laboratories in either discipline are dedicated to imparting knowledge in conventional food and biochemical processing to state-of-the-art technologies such as spray and freeze-drying and analytical methods such as chromatographic methods of separation, spectroscopic methods, rheological and textural studies, electronic nose applications to complement biochemical assays. These facilities not only our undergraduate and post-graduate students but also enhance our research component.
Our department is highly acclaimed for its B.E course both nationally and internationally and is equally competent in the development of food and biochemical processes and products of immense societal significance.
