Abstract:
Current milk production of India is ~ 209 MT (23% of global production) and half of it is consumed at producer’s door. Traditionally, milk is boiled, cooled, fermented and churned to recover the milk fat by farmers which generate sour buttermilk as a by-product in huge quantity. Beside domestic consumption, most of this buttermilk is discarded as a waste to the environment causing loss of milk nutrients and environmental pollution. Owing to numerous health and therapeutic benefits, sour buttermilk has been even referred as nectar on earth for human being in Ayurveda. So far methods of processing and preservation of sour buttermilk is not available. Its higher acidity, poor heat stability and low total solids content acts as a major detrimental factors in its processing. Therefore, this investigation has been aimed on production and characterization of sour buttermilk powder. Sour buttermilk samples were procured from farmers and pooled followed by its concentration at ambient temperature using pressure driven reverse osmosis (RO) membrane process. RO concentration significantly (p<0.05) increased the total solids (TS) levels compared to sour buttermilk. Thereafter, its RO concentrate was converted in to sour buttermilk powder (SBMP) employing spray drying. The manufactured powder was characterized in detail for its physico-chemical, reconstitution, and functional, rheological properties. It has been characterized using FTIR and SEM as well. SBMP is instantly soluble with 3 seconds wetting index and 29 mL/ 100 mL insolubility. In nutshell, a method has been developed for the production and preservation of sour buttermilk powder which is a rich source of milk nutrients can be used as an ingredient in an array of applications.
