CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Transcription

1 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION India is the world s largest milk producing country. In India, milk is an important diet and produced 132 million tonnes in 2013, increased by around 4% over the previous year which comprised about 17% of global production [1]. It is expected to increase 240 million tonnes of milk during The 80% of milk produced in the country is handled by unorganized sector and remaining 20% from cooperative and private dairies. While 46% of the milk is consumed as liquid milk and also stimulate to increase the consumption. The per capita availability of the milk has reached a level of 290 g per day by the year 2012, which is more than the world average of 284 g per day [1]. The National sample survey revealed a rising trend in the monthly per capita expenditure on milk and milk products [2]. In rural areas of Northern parts of India, such expenditure is higher (20-43%) than in urban areas [3]. Milk and milk products, being the second-largest agricultural by product sector in India and play a vital role in the agricultural economy. In Indian households, the shelf life of milk is extended from 12 to 24 hrs by repeated boiling. The basic limitation of milk is perishable in nature, has been tastefully overcome by converting it into mouth-watering sweets [4]. Hence, different preparation and preservation methods have been developed for milk products. India has the unique tradition of producing a variety of indigenous milk products. The market worth for Indian milk products is valued around $11bn. Southern region of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) realizes that the major strength of traditional dairy product sector in India is the bulk demand of wide variety of products. The market value of traditional dairy product (TDP) is largest than liquid milk and is estimated US$3 and US$1 billion in India and overseas respectively [5]. Nearly half of the total milk production in India is utilized for the manufacture of variety of traditional milk products such as ghee (fat rich), paneer, Chhana, Chhana based sweets (acid coagulated), khoa and khoa based sweets, rabri, basundi (heat desiccated), dahi, mishti dahi, shrikhand (fermented), kheer, payasam (cereal based) and kulfi (frozen) products. India manufactured khoa, around 900,000 tonnes was valued Rs 45,000 million and 1,200,000 tonnes of channa valued for Rs 6,000 million [6]. However a major portion of milk sweets production has been

2 2 prepared from culinary skills of homemakers and halwais for long period. In addition to preservation of milk solids for longer time at room temperature, manufacture of traditional dairy products add value to milk and also provide considerable employment opportunity [7]. Indigenous milk sweets in India have played a vital role in the social, economic, religious and nutritional aspects of our people since ancient period. About 50 to 55% of milk production is converted into traditional variety of Indian milk products, using processes like heat and acid coagulation, fermentation and heat desiccation by the halwais. The consumers prefer to buy indigenous dairy products from the organized sector due to the growing awareness towards the safety aspects of milk based sweets. The organized sector has so far not been able to tap into this market potential though widespread attractiveness and acceptability of traditional milk products in the Indian market, for many reasons viz., lack of literature on technology, inadequacy of appropriate technologies, packaging materials and labeling for commercial production, low shelf life and lack of quality assurance methods. Now-a-days few organized dairy sectors have started the indigenous dairy products production on a large scale, but their impact has been limited [2]. The shelf life of traditional dairy products is generally low and does not commensurate with the principles involved in their manufacture. One of the reasons for poor shelf life is either no packaging or inadequate packaging of traditional dairy products mostly post manufacturing, due to unhygienic conditions during production, packaging and storage areas. A number of surveys conducted on the market quality of indigenous milk products have revealed alarmingly high rate of microbial contamination, besides large variations in chemical composition, flavor and texture. Most of the indigenous milk products have higher water activity which leads to rapid deterioration at ambient temperature. Additionally, food products exposed to different environmental conditions without packaging get contaminated easily with molds and bacteria. Improperly packaged foods undergo many changes in their flavor and textural during transportation and marketing. Lack of knowledge about the nature of food products and their compatibility with the packaging material may forfeit the purpose and leads to raise the cost [8, 9].

3 3 Government of India lays emphasis on promoting indigenous technologies and encourages patenting and protecting these valuable technologies and projected as original in other parts of world. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has a mandate of documenting various traditional milk products of our country and task of collecting information on these products has been assigned to its Research Institutes and Universities. This has been done to bring forth Indian culture to the World prospect including cuisine culture. As part of this mandate, the present research work was designed and carried out [5]. Jalebi is an important sweet product and most popular among the all kinds of Indian people. It has evolved into ubiquitous sweet over a several centuries. Though it is claimed that the origin of jalebi is Iran, the product is more predominant in Indian subcontinent [10]. Jalebi can be attributed to its attractive shape, crisp texture and juicy mouth feel [11, 12]. The preparation technology of jalebi is well known and has undergone several changes and optimized over a period of time. Standardization of some of the khoa jalebi based milk products have been done by several researchers [10, 13, 14]. The process of jalebi making includes the preparation of a thick batter using refined wheat flour (maida), addition of a small quantity of curd and allowing for fermentation, pouring of the batter in a skilled manner into the hot oil for frying of jalebi strand- embedded structure followed by soaking in sugar syrup [11, 12, 15, 16]. Chhana is fresh, unripened curd cheese widely used in India and Bangladesh. It is crumbly and moist form of farmer s cheese or paneer and used to make sweets like rasogulla. It is made in a similar process of paneer except not pressed for as long. Numerous research works were conducted on Chhana based sweets like rasogulla, sandesh, Chhana podo and Chhana jhili, however no attempts has been made for another new Chhana based sweet like Chhana jalebi preparation as well as preservation in order improve their shelf-life. Chhana jalebi is a Chhana based fried sweet product originated in certain parts of Odisha and West Bengal. It is traditionally prepared by mixing Chhana, maida and suji to form a batter which is then made into specific shape and fried in oil/ghee, thereafter soaked in sugar syrup. It is irregular in shape, golden brown in color, has soft body, spongy texture and rich caramel flavor. Shelf-life of the product dipped in sugar syrup is around 2 days at room temperature [17].

4 4 Preservation is necessary to improve the shelf life of the product. Increase the shelf life is helpful for transportation of the product to different places [18]. Therefore preservatives play a key role in the shelf life of the products. Hence Chhana jalebi is soaked in sugar syrup which acts as a natural preservative. However, synthetic preservatives like sorbates and benzoates could also be added to further increase the shelf life and also protection against some microbial growth to which sugar is not effective alone. Packaging is necessary in order to protect the product from unwanted substance like dust, moisture and spores of microorganisms. Without proper packaging, addition of preservative alone should not give the desired outcome. Apart from enhancing the shelf life, packaging also improves the marketing ability of a product. A good and attractive packaging material attracts buyers towards itself and this can promote its sale in the market. The packaging aspects of traditional dairy products are still at a stage of infancy. The packaging materials used for these products are various leaves, polyethylene pouches, paperboard cartons to tin/aluminum cans [19]. Moreover use of cans is expensive in India. Thus, efforts should be made to study the utility of various types of flexible and some rigid packaging films like polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and various laminar sheets for milk and indigenous milk products [20]. 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT Despite the widespread popularity and acceptability of traditional dairy products in the Indian market, the organized sector has not been able to fulfill the anticipate market potential because of many reasons. Some of the most important are: i. Traditional dairy products are being neglected after arrival of the modern ready to eat foods. ii. iii. iv. Inadequacy of appropriate technologies for their large scale production. The great challenge is to develop a product without high incidence of microbial contamination and reducing the large variations in the chemical composition and also uncontrolled sensory characteristics. Insufficiency of appropriate preservation and packaging system and labeling to take care of the new patterns in consumer demand.

5 5 v. Modern packaging technology is yet unable to provide a proper packaging system to guarantee the shelf-life of the product for an effective period of time within a suitable price range. Thus, an attempt is made to standardize the production parameters of Chhana jalebi, identification and suggesting the suitable preservative, packaging material. It will pave a path for commercialization and increased shelf life of the product. 1.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The review of literature reveals that traditional milk products are undergoing a lot of progress, since the industrial sector has identified their importance in their economic growth. The scope of industrial production for dairy products is enlarging, mechanization and new technologies are being introduced. Apart from internal market, they are trying to explore the market beyond boundaries. There are many indigenous dairy products which are still at the stage of infancy of development. Chhana jalebi is such type of product on which no scientific and industrial works have been carried out. It is a traditional dairy product which is produced in certain regions of Odisha and Bengal state. In order to make its presence all over the country/world, such effort is to be taken. Scope of this study was confined to four stages such as standardization, preservation, packaging and storage studies. The first stage of this study was the standardization of production. It is necessary to optimize the properties of ingredients and processing conditions for the commercial production. Preservation of the product can be considered as the second stage. Chhana jalebi is usually sold in paper or plastic bags in the local market. The product has a shelflife of 2-3 days under the ambient temperature at their local conditions. When the question of exploring distant market comes, the shelf-life stability of product becomes very vital. Therefore, use of preservatives can play a major role. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) permits to use certain types of preservatives in milk and milk products. However Chhana jalebi is a sweet product kept in sugar syrup for certain time, which itself can act as a preservative, even though it is possible for yeast and mold spoilage. Thus, use of FSSAI permitted

6 6 preservatives like sorbic acid and benzoic acid salts can be tried to prevent the yeast and mold growth in the product for increasing the shelf-life. Identifying suitable packaging material and techniques were the third part of the present study. A good packaging system itself enhances the shelf life and marketing of the product. It should be convenient and provide protection apart from the basic packaging functions. With innovations in packaging materials and systems like vacuum packaging, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), smart pack-aging, etc., globally, it was possible to extend the shelf life of many perishable and non-perishable foods. However, commercial application of modern packaging techniques for Indian milk products is still at a nascent stage. However, no information is available on the use of MAP and vacuum packaging for shelf life extension of Chhana jalebi. In the present work, attempts were made to extend the shelf life of Chhana jalebi by employing MAP and vacuum packaging. Storage studies were conducted as final part of the research. Storage studies are very vital especially for food products. As part of these studies various analysis such as physico-chemical, microbial, textural and sensory analysis was carried out and the changes during storage period were analysed for statistical significance by two way ANOVA. 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To standardize the processing parameters of Chhana jalebi. To study the physico-chemical, microbial, textural and sensory characteristics of the product. To increase shelf life of the product through suitable preservatives within the Maximum Permitted Level (MPL). To identify suitable packaging material and techniques for the Chhana jalebi. To analyze the storage characteristics of the standardized product.