Background::
The market for traditional Indian dairy products (TIDP) is ever increasing. Nearly 55% of the milk produced in India is utilized for TIDP manufacture. Milk cake is a dairy dessert consumed by large Indian population. It is prepared from Danedar khoa variety. Due to it’s concentrated form, it is energy dense and provides significant nutrients. Now-a-days there is a great demand for TIDP especially energy dense products like milk cake. However, milk cake has shorter shelf-life (10 days at ambient temperature) which is a deterrent for marketing and long-distance transportation. Hence, there is a need for milk cake with extended shelf-life to meet the consumer demands with good marketability. The hygienic standards at the manufacturing plants especially at small-scale level and Halwais is poor. Thus, raises concern among today’s health-conscious consumers.:
Technology Details::
To address the short shelf-life of milk cake, a long-life milk cake having 2 months shelf-life at ambient temperature was developed by Dairy Technology Division, ICAR-NDRI, Karnal. This long-life milk cake addresses the marketability issues and promotes sales. Also, this technology is based on in-can retort packaging thus helps in improving the food safety standards of TIDP.