Levente Diosady recognized with Connaught Innovation Award
Published: March 29, 2021
Professor Emeritus Levente Diosady of the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has received a Connaught Innovation Award for his work on fortifying tea and tea beverages with iron.
A world-renowned food engineer, Diosady has spent much of his career developing techniques for fortifying staple foods with micronutrients to improve human health.
“We have developed technology that allows inclusion of iron in the presence of a competing chelating agent, which does not affect the taste and colour of tea prepared by steeping tea leaves or granules in boiling water,” Diosady says. “To enable large-scale introduction of this invention, we need to further develop technology for inclusion of the encapsulated micronutrient in the most widely consumed forms of tea: tea granules and tea powder, in addition to the more expensive tea leaves.”
Diosady’s team will agglomerate the iron microcapsules with a modified starch or sugar.
“Since tea in India is consumed sweetened with sugar, the addition of very small amounts of sugar will not degrade the taste of the iron fortified tea,” Diosady says. “Successful development of the technology will allow us to conclude a joint development program with Hindustan Unilever to market iron fortified tea.”
The goal is to improve iron levels in women especially in South Asia, reducing the incidence of maternal and infant mortality, Diosady says.
