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The Food Processing Sector
Food processing adds value to the agricultural produce starting at the post harvest level. It includes even primary processing like grading, sorting, cutting, seeding, shelling packaging etc.
The sector comprises of the following major areas:
Fruit & Vegetable
The major products processed out of fruits and vegetables include beverages, juices, concentrates, pulps, slices, frozen and dehydrated products, wine potato wafers or chips etc.
Apple
Apple without skin, cooked, canned apples, dehydrated apples, frozen apples, canned apple juice, apple juice, apple sauce.
Banana
Banana Powder, Banana Flour, Banana Puree, Banana Chips, Banana Jam and Banana Jelly, Banana vinegar, Sweet coat banana.
Grape
Jam, Juice, Syrup, Squash, Wine and Raisins.
Guava
Pectin, Jam, Jelly, Pickle, Powder, Puree, Peru khand, Beverages, Ethanol Production, Wine and Animal Feed preparation.
Lychee
Lychee crush, juice, squash, pickles, canned and dried fruits.
Mango
Juice, squash, nectar, jam, pulp, puree, pickles, canned slices, mango leather (papad), starch from mango kernel.
Papaya
Papain, Jam, Marmalade, Tutti-frutti (candy), Pickle, Wafers (Papad), Chocolate, Canned papaya, Fridge dried papaya.
Pineapple
Canned Pineapple Juice, Pineapple Squash, Pineapple beverage, Canning Syrup from Pineapple Waste Juice, Preparation of Vinegar from Pineapple Wastes, Cattle Feed Ingredient, Pineapple Bran, Pineapple Silage, Pineapple Tops (Crowns), Waxes, Pineapple Proteases (Bromeliad), Pineapple Fibre.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate Juice, Jelly, Syrup, Squash, Nectar, Anar rub, Anar crush, Dried pomegranate (Anar Dana), Powder, Pomegranate wine.
Sapot
Chikku Juice, Squash, Syrup, Jam, Toffee, Candy, Dried Fruit Scrap and Powder, Milk Shake, Ice cream.
Watermelon
Juice.
Fruits and Vegetables Consumer Products
Fruit Toffees
Fruit toffee is made from pulp of various fruits along with certain food preservatives and ingredients. Small and cottage scale manufacture of fruit toffee provides self-employment in the area where the fruits widely available. Although fruit toffees are being made in the organised sector still there exists a vast potential for cottage scale production.
Fruit Bars
Fruit bar is a concentrated fruit product, which has a good shelf life. A variety of pulpy fruits like mango, banana, guava, papaya, apple etc. can be used in preparing fruit bars. Due to their good shelf life, availability in various flavors and texture fruit bars are becoming increasingly popular.
Fruit Jams and Jellies
Fruit jams and jellies are prepared by boiling the fruit pulp with sufficient quantity preservative like sugar to a moderately thick consistency. The popular varieties of jam include mixed fruit, pineapple, mango, strawberry, grape, apricot and among jellies, guava and apple. The jam is used as a bread spread and could be taken along with paranthan, chapatti and puri. Jams, jellies and marmalades contribute around 17% of the total processed fruit and vegetable products.
Improved Murabba Making
Murabba comes under indigenous sweet preparations of the country. Murabba could be prepared from amla, mango, bael, myrobalan, carrot, apple also citrus peels are quite popular. The traditional method of preparing murabba requires a long processing time and does not ensure good keeping quality for the product often spoils due to miocrobial fermentation. The method has been improved to obtain murabba in a shorter period with good keeping quality, attractive translucent appearance and desirable texture.
Tutty Fruity
Fruits like apple, mango, amla, papaya, strawberry, raspberry, pear, cherry, etc are used in preparing preserves or candies. Raw papaya is largely used to make tutti-fruity used in bakery products, sweetmeats, ice creams, salads and pan.
The candied fruits and vegetables are quite popular food items and their consumption of is rapidly increasing.
Osmo-air dried Fruits
Osmo air-dried fruits are based on a novel approach towards dehydration. Slices of various fruits like ber, pineapple, jackfruit, mango, etc. are processed in two stages. In the first phase most of the water is removed using sugar syrup as an osmotic agent. In the second phase air drying is done where the moisture content is further reduced to about 15%. The osmo-air dehydrated product is near to the fresh fruit in terms of colour, flavour and texture. The osmo-air dehydrated product can be used in ready-to-eat type foods, ice cream, fruit salad, kheer, cakes and bakery products. Such osmo-air dried fruit based units can be set up in areas near fruit orchards to the benefit of people. The process is simple and involves operations like selection of fruits, cleaning, washing, peeling, curing and slicing and dicing. To remove water by osmosis the prepared fruit slices are steeped in sugar solution. The slices are then drained, dried in a hot air drier and finally packed in flexible pouches.
Grape Raisins
Dried grapes are used in various food preparations and are directly consumed. Grape growing area has the potential of manufacturing raisins. An effective and improved method to prepare raisins has been developed which can easily be adopted. This process consists of washing of grape, alkali treatment, sulphitation, drying in sun or in dehydraters.
Any grape variety with high sugar and low acid content can be used yielding a good quality product. No sophisticated equipment is needed and the unit can be installed in orchards generating rural employment.
Dry Apricots
Apricot is grown in the temperate regions. The dry fruit form of apricot is an important item of confection. The fully ripe fruits are harvested item of confection. The fully ripe fruits are harvested and placed in a wooden sulfuring chamber wherein yellow sulphur is burnt at the rate 4g per kg of fruit. Sulfured fruits are then dried in a solar drier for 5-7 days till the moisture content is about 17%. Finally the dry fruits are packed in polythene bags for storage and marketing.
Dehydrated Vegetables
Dehydration is one of the methods to preserve seasonal and perishable vegetable and make them available throughout the year in hygienic conditions at reasonable or low cost. Such dehydrated vegetables are easy to transport and cater to the needs of large catering establishments. The advantage of such dehydrated vegetables can be used in various preparations at any season of the year. Traditional sun drying is time consuming, less hygienic and climate dependent.
The process for controlled dehydration of vegetables consists of grading and sorting, washing, peeling and trimming, size reduction, blanching, chemical treatment, dehydration and packing in unit can be established.
Anardana
Anardana is pomegranate seed. The seed when dried yields anardana of commerce. The anardana is manually extracted of arils followed by sundrying. It is unhygienic, labour intensive and slow. The product cannot be stored for long or beyond monsoon season since spoilage occurs due to discolouration, moisture ingress and insect infestation.
The modern processing technique is hygienic and consists of pre-cleaning, mechanised extraction of arils, solar drying and packaging. The mechanised aril extractor works on ¼ HP motor and can process 60 kg fruit per hr as compared to productivity of 5 kg per hr in manual operation.
Fisheries
Under this category, frozen and canned products mainly in fresh form is presented.
Meat and Poultry
It is frozen and packed mainly in fresh form. Egg is also processed into egg powder in a couple of units.
Grain and Cereals
Flour, bakeries, biscuits, starch glucose, cornflakes, malted foods, vermicelli, pasta foods, beer and malt extracts, parched rice, flaked rice, rice starch, alcoholic beverages, Bran oil grain-based alcohol are some of the products which is processed food under grain and cereals.
Milk and Dairy
Whole milk powder, Skimmed milk powder, Condensed milk, Ice cream, Butter and Ghee are some of the processed products under dairy.
Processed Milk
Skimmed milk
Skimmed milk is prepared by removing the fat, vitamin A and other fat-soluble vitamins from whole milk. The fat is removed by using a cream separator. After the removal of fat the milk is suitable for many therapeutic conditions like, diabetic, obesity, high cholesterol, heart diseases, hypertension etc. Skimmed milk has only 2.5gms of protein, 29kcal of energy, 120mgs of calcium, 90mgs of phosphorous and most importantly fat be only 0.1gms per 100ml.
Toned milk
Toning can be defined as the addition of the constituted skim milk to whole buffalo milk so to reduce the fat to 3%. The nutritive value of toned milk is almost similar to that of the fresh cow's milk. Toned milk is useful source of protein for certain conditions such as malnourishment, pregnancy etc.
Doubled toned milk
Double toned milk is prepared by mixing cow's milk or buffalo milk with fresh skim milk or skim milk reconstituted from skim milk powder so that the fat content is not less than 1.5%. Except for lower fat and vitamin A contents the nutritive value of double toned milk is similar to that of toned milk.
Standardized milk
Standardised milk is prepared from buffalo milk or a mixture of buffalo and cow's milk by mixing with skim milk so that the fat content of the mixture is reduced to 4.5%. Its nutritive value is almost similar to that of cow's milk.
Sweetened condensed milk
Sweetened condensed milk contains about 40% sucrose but the concentration of milk solids is nearly the same as in evaporated milk. Because of its high sucrose content it is not suitable for feeding infants. It is used for the preparation of pudding, coffee, and tea. It has to be reconstituted with water before consumption if required.
Malted milk or powder
Malted milk powder is prepared from whole milk and malt extract. It contains 15% proteins and 7% fat. It can be used as food for invalids and convalescents and as supplement to the diets of children as well as for adults. But it is not suitable for feeding infants.
Milk products can be unfermented and fermented products which includes all types of milk, cottage cheese (paneer) whey, curd, skimmed milk powder, cream, malai, khoya, yoghurt, butter milk, butter and cheese.
Skimmed milk powder
Dried and packed milk could be preserved for longer time it can be dried and packed. To prepare skimmed milk powder a thin layer of milk is run over heated cylinder, which is called as roller or drum process. The dried powder is removed by scraping.
The other method to prepare the skimmed milk powder is spray process in which minute droplets of milk are sprayed into a heated chamber and powder falls to the bottom. To reconstitute this powder into milk one part of the powder is added to eight parts of water.
This milk is deficient in fat and fat-soluble vitamins but the proteins, water-soluble vitamins, and minerals are preserved.
Other Milk Products
Cream
The fat, which floats to the surface of milk when allowed to stand for several hours are cream. Commercially it is separated by centrifugation.
Nature of milk cream
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Description
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Fat %
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Energy kcal per 100gms
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Half cream
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12
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133
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Single cream
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18
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185
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Sterilised cream
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23
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227
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Whipping cream
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35
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329
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Double cream
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48
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439
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Clotted cream
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55
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500
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Malai (clotted cream)
Allowing the boiled milk to cool for some time a thick layer of fat and coagulated proteins collect at the surface. Most of the fat could be removed by repeating the process. Buffalo milk is considered to be ideal as it is richer in fat, produces better malai.
Khoya
Khoya is a milk product in which the water content is reduced to between 20 and 25 percent. It is prepared by vigorously boiling and stirring milk continuously. Khoya forms a uniform mass containing fats heat coagulated proteins and lactose. It can be stored for about 3-5 days and with the addition of sugar can be kept longer. It can be eaten as such or used for preparing sweets. Khoya provides 20% protein, 25% fat, and 413kcal of energy per 100 gms.
Paneer (cottage cheese)
Paneer is prepared by adding citrus or lemon juice to boiling milk. Commercially theprevious residual paneer liquid is used which precipitates casein, lactalbumin, and fat. It is then strained through a cloth and paneer is collected. It is not a fermented product of milk so it cannot be ripened like cheese as boiling destroys all the organisms. Paneer supplies 15% protein, 22%fat, 5% carbohydrate, and 280kcal of energy per100gm.
Curd
Curd is a sour milk preparation regularly made and highly consumed in Indian homes. Dahi or curd is eaten as such with salt or sugar or added to other preparations. The butterfat is removed from dahi by churning and used to make ghee. The calorific value of curd is same as cow’s milk. 40 percent of lactose is converted to lactic acid. It has 3.1 gms of protein, 4gms of fat, 149mgs of calcium, and 93mgs of phosphorous.
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