Modernisation and shelf life extension of chhana-based traditional sweetmeat by utilising Theobroma cacao, Vaccinia oxycoccos and different fruit powders

Abstract

India is pre-eminent in milk production and according to the estimates of the dairy industry, 50% of the comprehensive milk produced in India is processed into traditional milk products like ghee, paneer, khoa, chhana, dahi and a diverse range of milk sweetmeats. Chhana and chhana-based confections like rasogolla, ras-malai, cham-cham, etc. are highly perishable and limited research efforts have been made to increase their shelf life, resulting in a waning of dairy output in terms of value addition. So, the plenary investigation was based on the development of an improved confection utilising chhana and fruit powders as core materials, Theobroma cacao (dark chocolate) as a coating of core material, and Vaccinia oxycoccos (cranberry extract) as a natural preservative in the core material. Storage studies were performed on four different formulations marked as control, T1, T2 and T3 (described in the material/methodology section) at a storage interval of 10 days up to day 40 of refrigeration preservation. Total phenolic counts, flavonoid counts, pH and water activity of all the formulations exhibited a substantial decrease, while TBA values, TPC and YMC increased significantly with the advancement of storage interval. All the samples got the microbial counts (TPC and YMC) above the permissible limit between 30 and 40 days of storage, indicating a shelf life of 30 days versus the few days of shelf life of traditional chhana-based confections.