Centre to support food process industry with schemes

Kolkata: The Centre has drawn up a slew of schemes, in the form of subsidies, to support the food processing industry, from micro to large units, a senior official said. Secretary of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Subrata Gupta, said that a lot of food, particularly fruits and vegetables, go to waste for not being processed to increase their shelf life. "On an average, processing of food in various sectors is only around 10 per cent. This is a matter of concern. There is a need to process and preserve food to curb wastage," Gupta said at an interactive session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here on Monday night. The ministry is supporting the sector with a slew of schemes for micro, medium and large units, he said.