Title of Invention

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF READY TO COOK MIX AND FOOD FROM PEARL MILLET

Abstract

The invention disclosed in this application relates to the development of an optimized process for the production of Ready To Cook (RTC) Mix and Food from pearl millet by preparing 1.4 to 0.71 mm larger size brokens, 0.70 to 0.425 mm smaller size brokens and powder of < 0.425 mm; mixing them in 1: 1: 1 ratio on weight basis; mixing this ready to cook mix with 2.5 times boiling watir (by weight basis) and cooking under a pressure of 1.88 kg / cm2 (absolute) for 6 minutes and 30 seconds to produce an organoleptically palatable food from pearl millet. The invention also includes the development of a R TC Mix Processor consisting of a burr mill to break pearl millet, rotary sieve to sieve the grits and powder, cover, grits collecting and conveying chutes, motors etc., mounted on a suitable frame to produce grits of required sizes for the preparation ofRTC mix.

Full Text

APPLICATION FOR THE GRANT OF PROVISIONAL PATENT Optimization of Process Parameters for the Production of Ready to Cook Mix and Food from Pearl Millet Dr. R. Kailappan Professor Department of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore - 641 003 Tamil Nadu. 2006 The following specifications describe the invention 6. Describe the nature of the invention 6.1. Importance of Pearl Millet Pearl millet (Pewiisetum glaucum L.) belongs to Family Poaceae (grass) is the fifth most important cereal crop and most important millet (occupies more than 55% of global millet production), grown over 40 countries, predominantly in Africa and Asia. It is a staple food grain and source of feed, fodder and fuel. The stalk portion of the cop is not only used as fodder material but also used as the house construction material in the hottest, driest, semi-arid and arid regions where rainfed agriculture is practiced. Pearl millet is also called as Bajra, Cumbu, Candle millet, Spiked millet, Dark millet etc. Pearl millet is grown annually on more than 29 million ha in the semi-arid tropical regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America with a production of 18.7 million tomes. India is the largest producer of this crop, both in terms of area (9.1 million ha) and production (7.3 million tonnes) with an average productivity of 780 kg ha""1 during last five years In India, nearly 50% of the millet area is under hybrid cultivars. As compared to the early 1980s, the pearl millet area in India declined by 26% during the last five years, but production increased by 19% owing to a 44 % increase in productivity. From the Table 1, it is noted that the pearl millet is rich in fat (5%) and protein (11.8%). Pearl millet also contains minerals like calcium and iron and vitamins like Thiamin, Riboflavin and Niacin at the rate of 42, 11, 0.38, 0.21 and 2.8 mg per every 100 gram of edible portion of pearl millet (Table 1.). Among all the cereal and millet crops grown, pearl millet ranks first in energy content and contains 363 k.cal of energy for every 100 gram of edible portion of the grain. The Rice and Wheat suppose to be the important staple food for north and South Indians respectively, contains energy value lower than this pearl millet. Pearl millet contains more than 5% oil and nearly 70% of the oil content is polyunsaturated fatty acids. The oil content is the main reason for its more energy content than any other grain and the same oil content lowers the shelf life of the processed pearl millet grain due to the development of rancidity. 6.2. Traditional Method of Processing of Pearl Millet for the Preparation of Food Pearl Millet is one of the important food grains used by the peasants and farm labourers of South India. The following is the traditional method of processing of pearl millet for the preparation of food. Table. 1. Nutrient composition of pearl millet, other millets and cereals The pearl millet is soaked for 15 - 20 min. to wet the outer husk. Then, hand pounding of the soaked pearl millet is done gently using a stone mortar and wooden pestle only to separate the outer husk. By using a winnow, the outer husk is removed from the lightly pound grain mass. After this, hand pounding is done vigorously on the cleaned pearl millet and made into two or three different fractions namely, larger broken, medium broken and or powder using a winnow. Using these two or three fractions, food is prepared. For preparation of food, larger brokens are cooked first with known quantity of water in a vessel. After completion of cooking of larger brokens, medium brokens are added and cooking is continued. Once the small brokens are also cooked, the content become thick and semi solid. At this stage powder is added and cooking continued. Then the entire mass becomes paste like texture. At this stage cooking is stopped all ilames are removed and the cooked food is kept on the chula over the glowing charcoal for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then the vessel containing food is removed from the chula, cooled and food is made in to balls. These balls are about 10 cm in diameter. Sambar or rasam can be added to these balls and can be mixed (similar to rice) and consumed. One couple have to work hard with pestle and mortar for one to one and half hours to process one kg of pearl millet and half an hour on the chula or stove by the woman to prepare food out of it. Hence, now days, none of the youngsters even in the rural areas is ready to prepare food using pearl millet. They have gone for rice, since rice does not require any precooking preparation. Just take a known volume of rice and add to this calculated quantity of water (2 to 2.5 times the volume of rice), mix both and cook the mix over chula or stove. Alternately, in some places (widows acting as small entrepreneur) the pearl millet is made in to flour and cooked with known quantity of water (similar to gruel) anc1 allowed it to cool. As the flour contains starch, after gelatinization, it solidifies on cooling. This solidified gruel is mixed with buttermilk and sold as liquid pearl millet food along with mango or chilley pickles near the bus stands and public parks; This is not the correct way of preparation of food from pearl millet and that is why it did not get popularized. Other problems associated with the traditional method are the maintenance of grit sizes during hand pounding and separation of different size brokens using a winnow. Because of the tedious processes involved in the precooking preparation, the use of Pearl Millet for food purpose decreases day by day and consumption of rice increases steadily. This leads to a decrease In the price of pearl millet and an increased demand for rice. This problem can easily be solved by developing a technology wherein the pearl millet is processed, packaged and made in the form of Ready to cook Mix similar to rice and then advocating suitable method for cooking, it is possible to prepare a food which will have a mouth feeling of eating a food made from pearl millet (similar to traditional food). Hence, there is a need for new technology to process and prepare food using pearl millet. Thus, a new technology is proposed and submitted for provisional patenting. 6.3, Proposed Processing Technology for "Optimization of Process parameters for the production of Ready to Cook Mix and Food from Pearl Millet" 6.3.1.Preparation of Ready to Cook Mix Pearl millet is a protein rich grain, which cannot be dehusked, cooked and eat similar to rice due to its inherent characteristics like separation of cooked grain from each other and not to become a soft and good textured food even after cooling. This necessitates for the invention / development of new technologies for preparation of Ready to Cook or Instant Cook mix and preparation of food using the Ready to Cook mix prepared from pearl millet. As the pearl millet contains more than 5% oil and more than 70 % oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, the processed grains cannot be stored as such because of oxidation and hydrolysis action of oxygen and water vapour in the air at the places of double bonds present in the polyunsaturated fatty acids. These results in the development of rancidity and make the processed grain unfit for human consumption. Hence, the processed pearl millel: has to be packaged using polyethylene, polypropylene and aluminium foils as packaging; materials and the shelf life in these packaging mediums has to be reported for easy distribution and timely utilization in the retail market. This packaging method will also fulfill all four important packaging functions namely, containment (of RTC mix), protection (from pests, dust, water, oxygen, etc.), convenience (transportation and distribution) and communication (giving information about the content and the method of cooking the RTC mix). In the proposed technology, the grains (after purchasing from the market) will be cleaned for the removal of stones, dust, ill filled and chaffy grains from the good grains. The good grains will be pearled by removing the outer husk. Then the pearled pearl millet will be processed for the preparation of ready to cook mix. During the process of preparation of Ready to Cook mix, the pearl millet will not be converted into flour as it is being practiced for ragi or other millets. To get the "mouth feel" at the time of eating the food prepared using pearl millet, the grains will be made into different size grits (size fractions) including fine powder. Then, the broken grains are sieved into different size fractions and fine powder. The different size fractions and powder so collected will be mixed in different' proportions and cooked (with different quantity of water on volume or weight basis of the grain samples taken and cooked for different durations) for the preparation of food and to identify the correct proportions of the mix which will give the effect of mouth feel at the time of eating a food. The quality and acceptability of food prepared following the proposed technology will be evaluated by following a scientific method Nine points "Hedonic Scale" is an approved method in Food Engineering and Food Technology to evaluate the quality and acceptability of any newly prepared food. In this method, a panel of judges comprising of different age groups will be formed for this purpose, trained and organoleptic evaluation of food will be carried out. The panel of judges will be appraised about the method of evaluation of different food samples using nine points "Hedonic scale". Also, the food prepared using pearl millet following traditional method will be served to them first to make them familiar about the food from pearl millet before evaluating foods prepared based on the proposed technology using scorecard. The following type of scorecard will be utilized for this purpose. The Hedonic scale ratings are as follows. 1 - Dislike extremely, 2 - Dislike very much '■ • 3 - Dislike moderately, 4 - Dislike slightly 5 - Neither likes nor dislike 6 -Like slightly, 7 - Like moderately 8 - Like very much, 9 - Like extremely The panel of judges can write any numerical value (1 to 9) based on the particular quality trait of the sample as compared to the food prepared following traditional method. The column overall acceptability indicates the total quality of the food sample; as per the individual's evaluation. From the scorecard, the attribute, which recorded a lower value will be identified and improved by changing the operating parameters in the process of preparation and cooking of ready to cook mix. 6.3.3. Testing for Completion of Cooking Ranghino test" adopted for testing completion of cooking in rice will be followed in the present study also. Samples for testing the completion of cooking of the product mix will be taken from the center core of the cooked food product. Completion of cooking of food will be identified by means of complete gelatinization of the grain fractions, which can be viewed easily by pressing a small sample of cooked food in between two glass plates. Roughly one gram of sample will be taken and placed in between two glass plates, pressed and observed for the presence of white bellies. Absence of white bellies in the cooked food samples indicates the complete gelatinization of starch and thus completion of cooking of the mix. Absence of excess water on the surface of cooked food and forming a soft textured, typical pearl millet flavoured food with mouth feel indicates the correct sizes of different grits mixed in appropriate proportions with correct quantity of water. The process of completion of cooking of food would be further confirmed by conducting Texture Profile Analysis study as described by Malcolm Bourne, et al., 1966 using a Texture Analyzer. According to them, the texture analyzer will determine some of the quality of the cooked food quantitatively by measuring the force required to perform first and second bites on cooked food from the length and area below the curves obtained after first and second bites as shown in the figure 2. 6.3.3.1. Hardness The hardness value is the peak force of the first compression of the product. The hardness need not occur at the point of the deepest compression, although it typically does for most products. 6.3.3.2. Cohesiveness Cohesiveness is how well the product withstands a second deformation, relative to how it behaved under the first deformation. It is measured as the area of work during the second compression (Area 2) divided by the area of work during the first compression (Area 1). i.e. (Area 2 / Area 1) 6.3.3.3. Springiness Springiness is how well a product physically springs back after it has been deformed during the first compression. The springiness is measured at the down stroke of the second compression, so the wait time between two strokes can be relatively important. In some cases an excessively long wait time will allow a product to spring back more than it might under the conditions being researched (e.g. you would not wait 60 seconds between chews). It is equal to length of second compression divided by length of first compression. . 6.3.3.4. Gumminess Gumminess only applies to semi-solid products and it is equal to Hardness *Cohesiveness. Gumminess is mutually exclusive with Chewiness since a product would not be both a semi-solid and a solid at the same time. 6.3.3.5. Resilience Resilience is how well a product "fights to regain its original position". You can think of it as instant springiness, since resilience is measured on the withdrawal of the first penetration, before the waiting period is started. It is equal to area 5 divided by area 4. 6.4. Expected outcome from the research work proposed for provisional patenting. The proposed technology for provisional patenting will give ways and means to prepare a Ready To Cook (RTC) Mix and food using RTC mix from pearl millet. Hence, this invention will increase the usage of pearl millet among peasants, farm labourers and lower income people. This will possibly reduce demand (pressure) on rice. The increased usage of Pearl Millet will help poor man's millet to fetch higher price in the market. This technology will also relieve poor peasants and farm labourers of rural areas from their hard muscle work required for the preparation pearl millet before cooking. This will also indirectly help to restore the availability of traditional food for regular use in rural areas similar to rice. The packaging method will help for easy distribution of RTC mix through grocery shops in all rural and urban areas without any quality loss.

Documents:

2310-CHE-2006 AMENDED CLAIMS 05-08-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 05-08-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS 13-09-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 FORM-1 05-09-2011.pdf

2310-che-2006 form-1 05-08-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 FORM-1 13-09-2011.pdf

2310-che-2006 form-5 05-08-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS 05-09-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE PO.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 05-08-2011.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 FORM-18.pdf

2310-CHE-2006 FORM-9.pdf

2310-che-2006-abstract.pdf

2310-che-2006-correspondnece-others.pdf

2310-che-2006-description(complete).pdf

2310-che-2006-drawings.pdf

2310-che-2006-form 1.pdf

2310-che-2006-form 5.pdf