STUDIES ON ENERGY REQUIREMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF KUNDA – A HEAT DESICCATED INDIAN MILK PRODUCT

Abstract

Kunda is an Indian traditional heat desiccated dairy product popular in Karnataka province of India. Manufacture of Kunda is a time consuming and energy intensive process involving continuous desiccation of milk along with sugar and the process involves consumption of large quantities of steam for evaporation of water. Since energy conservation in dairies is a priority area, a technology was developed to manufacture Kunda with less energy requirement utilizing caramelized sugar. Caramelized sugar was used during the process at various levels and it was observed that browning developed faster with increasing level of caramelized sugar. Use of 40% level of caramelized sugar reduced the total process time and also produced good quality Kunda. The total net energy consumption per kg Kunda was 8262.61 kJ and this energy consumption was brought down by 26.91% utilizing caramelized sugar at 40% level of sugar. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Several varieties of heat desiccated dairy products are being consumed by the people in India and other South Asian countries. Some of these products are highly region specific. The popularity of these products spans a vast geographical area. Kunda is one such product very popularly consumed in central regions of India. Its manufacture involves taking milk in a steam kettle, boiling for long periods of time along with sugar desiccating the contents to a brown colored semisolid mass, called Kunda. In a dairy plant, this involves consumption of large quantities of steam, which naturally adds to the cost of the product. In the present research work, the steam requirement for Kunda manufacture has been estimated and efforts were made to cut down the steam energy requirement by 26–27%, which translated to significant savings in energy. Thus, consumers not only will have to pay less for the product, but also could enjoy good quality product prepared by the developed technology. This technology has been successfully transferred to one of the dairy plants in the region.