Found: Prawn shells extend papaw storage life

Shirley Wijesinghe

COLOMBO: The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) has invented a method to extend the storage life of papaya using waste prawn shells.

Senior Research Officer,attached to the Food Technology of ITI Dr. Ilmi Hewajulige was awarded a PhD in recognition of her invention. Papaya was cultivated primarily as a home garden crop. However due to the increasing demand in the local and export market, papaya is now grown on an extensive scale.

Papaya has to be marketed soon after plucking as it gets ripened within a few days and a large portion of the harvest gets wasted due to over ripening.

Under the method invented by Dr. Hewajulige a chemical known as chitosan extracted from head and shell waste of prawns counters anti-fungal activity in Papaya enabling farmers to extend the storage life of Papaya up to 14 days without any loss of flavour.

Meanwhile, a project aiming to provide information to stakeholders of the fishery sector on commercialisation of products from fish surplus material in Sri Lanka has been launched at the Food Technology Section of the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Colombo.

According to ITI sources, the project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and is a collaborative project between the ITI Fiskeriforsking Norwegian Institute for Fishery and Aquaculture Research) and Sri Lanka Norway Match Marking Program coordinated by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.