Retort Processing of Indian Traditional Rice Dumpling

Abstract

Indian rice dumpling is a traditionaland nutritious south Indian snack with ashorter shelf life.In the study, retort processing has been explored to increase theshelf life of the rice dumpling.Retort processingprovides microbiologically,safer products. Butthe use of high temperature for longer processing period results in loss of nutritional and sensory qualities of the rice dumpling. The main objective of the present study is to optimize the process parameters of retort processingto maintain the sterility and retain the nutritional quality of rice dumpling. The experiments weredesigned using central composite design and the optimum value for the retort processing was obtained by response surface methodology. The optimum values of retort processing temperature and time were 115°C and 25 minutes respectively. Rice dumpling produced at the optimum conditions has a shelf life of four weeks when stored at ambient temperature. The sensory analysis was done using hedonic scale, the heat penetration study was calculated by Ball’s formula. The F0 value was found to be 3 minutes. Therefore the shelf life of the Indian traditional rice dumplingcould be increased from one day to four weeks by using retort processing technique.