Milk and milk products are highly perishable, and preserving them has always been a challenge. Since halwais (sweetmeat makers) use milk as a raw material, they have to procure it in large quantities, store and use it. Since it is labour-intensive, the quality of the product is likely to differ. But now dairy units can avail technology that enables to overcome most of these challenges.
Sunil Patel, associate professor, dairy engineering department, College of Dairy Science, Anand Agricultural University (AAU), has designed and developed an integrated plant for the mechanised production of traditional Indian dairy products (TIDPs), a batch type machine for making halwasan (a golden-brown wheat-based sweetmeat originally from Khambhat, a town in Gujarat's Anand district) and a machine for the continuous production of basundi (a milk-based dessert).
“The integrated plant for the mechanised production of TIDPs has three parts. The first is called the plate heat exchanger (PHE). The second is a combination of two parts – a twin cylinder and a scrapped surface heat exchanger (SSHE). And the third is called a spin-jacketed kettle with automatic controls. It is a National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) sponsored by the World Bank Scheme. NAIP is an Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) project,” Patel explained.
Other products whose manufacturing the integrated plant would facilitate include different kinds of khoa (also called khoya) – the base for numerous Indian sweets, kulfi mix, sandesh, barfi, halwas of various kinds [including bottle gourd (dudhi) and carrot] and peda. The university is slated to commence research and development (R&D) trials at its in-house facility, the process section of its Business Planning and Development (BPD) unit.
Patel has observed the traditional way in which halwais make their wares, which are not prepared with a fixed recipe and is a time-consuming process. “We also advocate small-scale entrepreneurship through the public-private partnership model. In fact, we even see a potential increase in the profit margin,” he said, confirming the economic benefit a user of the machine could derive.
He added, “Not only will this machine produce almost twice the quantity produced by the workers in a sweetmeat shop, but it will also halve the time taken to do so. The finished product will have a longer shelf life when the machine is used. Sales will be need-based.” It has bagged Patel numerous national and international awards, including a citation and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh from Sharad Pawar and an honour by Nestle at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal.
MoU with Panchamrut
AAU and the Godhra-based Panchamrut Dairy, a member of The Panchmahal District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd [which, as Patel said, was set up under the auspices of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which manages Amul] signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide a standard mechanism for the mechanical production of khoa. The state agricultural university will provide consultancy services as per this arrangement.
“At present Panchamrut manufactures khoa manually, but it wants to produce a larger quantity of it mechanically for sale to institutions in bucket packages,” said Baljeet Singh, business manager, BPD unit, AAU (this was corroborated by Patel during the telephonic conversation). Singh added, “Khoa, prepared in a kadai, tastes different. The main challenge the dairies will now face is to recreate that taste.”
Panchamrut, according to Patel, currently has a capacity of about 7 lakh litre of milk per day. He confirmed that the expected time the trials would last – about three months – confirming, “We had earlier helped a private dairy farm standardise its production of paneer from cow's milk (most dairy farms use buffalo milk). There has been an increase in the yield of the same from 13 per cent to about 17 per cent.”
