For a more complete summary of my trip, visit the Toddler Food Partners website.
The last several days have been taken up with meetings and a trip to Nagpur for an overnight stay. I haven’t even had a chance to take many photos.
New semi-automated packaging machine in use
We spent the morning of Thursday, 29th, at the production facility during which I shot a series of video clips to document the process for making MNT. The afternoon meeting was for a series of presentations by the Sion team, by people from SNEHA and a presentation showing the study data through September. We are awaiting later data.
On Friday, 30th, we were shown the results of an experiment comparing four different emulsifiers. The oil in the MNT tends to separate out during storage. One of the four emulsifiers was clearly superior in preventing oil separation and hardening of the product. It will be used for production after the study is done.
That evening we flew to Nagpur and were met at the hotel by Dr. Dhonde. She brought us to her home for a wonderful meal which concluded with a chocolate cake with “Happy Birthday Larry” on it!
We met with this group of ladies
The next day was full with meetings of the staff that is preparing for a clinical study once they get approval. The final meeting was a small NGO that is making food mixes and snacks that are very similar to traditional foods and snacks except they have greater nutritional values. We (TFP) will be keeping in touch with this group for possible future partnering.
We got back to IIT about midnight last night – the flight was late. Today we slept late and I have spent much of the afternoon editing my videos so we can show the process at a meeting with a local equipment supplier tomorrow.