Project title- to increase the shelf lif of the packaged makhana product upto 120 days OBJECTIVE1
TO CHECK THE BEST PACKAGING FOR THE MAKHANA KEEPING IN MIND ITS HYGROSCOPIC CHARACTERSTIC
2
TO CHECK THE EFFECT OF OF HEAT ON THE MAKHANA AND CALCULATE THE BEST ROASTING TEMPERATURE
3
TO ENLIST THE DIFFERENT MACHINARY INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT
FACTORS CONTROLLING SHELF LIFE
Product shelf life is controlled by three factors: product characteristics the environment to which the packaged product is exposed dur during ing distribution distribution the properties of the package
PRODUCT CHARECTERSTICS
Makhana (Euryale ( Euryale ferox Salisb.) common dry fruits utilized utili zed by the people due to ferox Salisb.) is one of the most common low fat content, high contents of carbohydrates, protein and minerals. B oth raw and fried Makhana are fairly rich in essential amino acids. Edible perisperm constitutes 80 per cent s tarch. Euryale ferox is a store house of macro- and micro-nutrients. The seeds are eaten raw or roasted. The seeds are sold in market and used as a farinaceous food.A lot of medicinal uses are recommended in the Indian and Chinese system of medicine. The different dif ferent dietary components of the seeds were investigated to assess its nutritional significance. Gorgon nuts are processed for their kernels in expanded form and this is known as makhana in India. Operations involved in the traditional method of processing make it laborious, time consuming and costly. This paper reports an investigation into the effect of five combinations of operations on recovery of makhana, viz., (1) roasting and popping; (2) drying, roasting and popping; (3) drying, tempering, roasting and popping; (4) first roasting, tempering, second roasting and popping; and (5) drying, first roasting, tempering, second roasting and popping. The design of the experiments was based on response surface methodology and they were conducted using thin-layer drying and a manual roasting method. The best combination of operations,based on the recovery of grade 1 makhana, was found to be drying, first roasting, tempering, second roasting and popping. The data was analysed to find the optimum processing conditions, to give 97% grade 1 makhana. These were found to be a combination of first roasting of dried nut (moisture content 33% d.b.) at 335 °C for 3·9 min, tempering for 23 h and second roasting at 335°C for 2·8 min. These conditions reduced the processing time to less than one-half as compared with the traditiona traditionall method.
THE PROPERTIES OF PACKAGE
Foods can be classified according to the amount of protection required,as shown in Table . The advantage of this sort of analysis is that attention can be focused on the key requirements of the package such as maximum moisture gain or oxygen uptake. This then enables calculations to be made to determine whether or not a particular package structure would provide the necessary barrier required to give the desired product shelf life. For moisture-sensitive foods, excess moisture in packages can have detrimental results: for example, caking in powdered products, softening of crispy products such as crackers, an moistening of hygroscopic products such as makhana (fox nut). Conversely, too much moisture loss from food may result in product desiccation. Desiccants such as silica gels, natural clays and calcium oxide are used with dry foods while internal humidity controllers are used for high moisture foods (for example, meat, poultry, fruits, and vegetables). Desiccants usually take the form of internal porous sachets or perforated water-vapor barrier plastic cartridges containing desiccants. They can also be incorporated in packaging material. Humidity controllers help maintain optimum in-package relative humidity (about 85% for cut fruits and vegetables), reduce moisture loss, and retard excess moisture in headspace and interstices where microorganisms can grow. Purge absorbers remove liquid squeezed or leaking from fresh products and can be enhanced by other active additives such as oxygen scavengers, antimicrobials, pH reducers, and carbon dioxide generators (Brody and others 2001).
