Title of Invention

A PROCESS FOR PREPARATION OF TENDERED COCONUT WATER CONCENTRATE.

Abstract

This invention relates to a process for the preparation of tender coconut water concentrate. Conventional thermal concentration methods are not suitable for the concentration of tender coconut water in view of loss of delicate flavor due to long exposure to thermal treatment besides being energy intensive. Therefore, in this invention a hybrid process was adopted for the concentration of coconut water, which includes initial concentration of coconut water by reverse osmosis and further concentration by thermal treatment. This novel approach reduces the time of exposure to heat treatment, thus retaining the flavors of tender coconut to a great extent.

Full Text

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of tender coconut water concentrate. The coconut water is biologically pure, very tasty and contains salts (Na, K, Mn etc.), sugars and vitamins. It is a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood/Fresh coconut water is highly valued in tropical countries. The world market for sports beverages is about $1,000 million, coconut water has potential to emerge as a new unexpected competitor. The major chemical constituents of coconut water are sugars and minerals and minor ones are fat and nitrogenous substances. Sugars in the forms of glucose and fructose form an important constituent of the tender nut water. The concentration of sugars in the nut water steadily increases from about 1.5 per cent to about 5 - 5.5 per cent in the early months of maturation. Tender coconut water contains most of the minerals such as potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorous, iron, copper, sulphur and chlorides. Coconut water contains small amounts of protein. The percentage of arginine, alanine, cystine and serene in the protein of tender coconut water are higher than those in cow's milk. Tender coconut water contains both ascorbic acid and vitamins of B group. The concentration of ascorbic acid ranges from 2.2 to 3.7mg per ml. Numerous medicinal properties of tender coconut water reported are as follows: good for feeding infants suffering from intestinal disturbances; oral rehydration medium; contains organic compounds possessing growth promoting properties; keeps the body cool, application on the body prevents prickly heat and summer boils and subsides the rashes caused by small pox, chicken pox, measles, etc.; kills intestinal worms; presence of saline and albumen makes it a good drink in cholera cases; checks urinary infections; excellent tonic for the old and sick; cures malnourishment; diuretic; effective in the treatment of kidney and urethral stones; can be injected intravenously in emergency case; found as blood plasma substitute because it is sterile, does not produce heat, does not destroy red blood cells and is readily accepted by the body; aids the quick absorption of the drugs and makes their peak concentration in the blood easier by its electrolytic effect; urinary antiseptic and eliminates poisons in case of mineral poisoning. Most of the tender coconut water is still consumed fresh in tropical coastal areas -once exposed to air, the liquid rapidly loses most of its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics, and begins to ferment. But the production of coconut beverages, particularly as a byproduct of processing operations such as coconut cream processing and coconut desiccation, has been of interest to the food manufacturers. A young coconut between six and nine months contains about 350 ml of water, it's water that eventually becomes the flesh. In one hour of sustained physical exercise, the body can lose up to three quarts of water through perspiration. In that water are the small amounts of "electrolyte" minerals - mainly sodium but also potassium - and carbohydrates (sugars), whose loss leads to fatigue. Traditionally, the remedy to fluid loss was simple to drink water. But since 1960s, sporting enthusiasts have an alternative - the "isotonic drink", containing water along with electrolytes minerals, vitamins, complex polymer carbohydrates and amino acids. Young coconut fruit harvested in just a few weeks and opened provides a refreshing drink because they are still filled with sweet and refreshing liquid endosperm. Fresh tender coconut water has an incredibly refreshing flavor, thirst quenching taste and usable fats for the active physical body and refreshes body and mind. Comparison of coconut water with sports drink has been provided in Table 1. Table 1: Comparison of coconut water with sports drink (Table Removed) Most commercial production today is carried out in Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, using high-temperature/short-time pasteurization (UHT process). But thermal processing has a drawback – it eliminates although the risk of bacteria, it removes some of coconut water’s nutrients and almost all of its delicate flavor. This severely limits the product’s marketability. Tender coconut water has potential if a new cold sterilization process is invented that retains its flavor and all its nutritional characteristics. The microfiltration technology is one such process. Filtration through a medium such as porcelain or a polyacrylic gel that retains all microorganisms and spores and renders the permeate commercially sterile. The coconut water may be processed with added sucrose, L-absorbic acid and lime juice to approximate the vitamin, energy content and to retain its original clarity. UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said in a statement that tender coconut water should be marketed as a natural energy drink for joggers and athletes. FAO has been granted a patent by United Kingdom on this new technology that would allow manufacturers to bottle tender coconut water that is biologically pure, tasty and full of salts, sugars and vitamins as demanded by athletes. It is the first patent ever given to a UN agency. Similar patent applications are pending in Canada and Japan. The uses of tender coconut water concentrate are 1. It can be reconstituted by addition of appropriate amount of water to a product similar to fresh tender coconut water. 2. The concentrate will be lot of potential in confectionery industry as sweetener and flavoring agent as well as in beverage industry. 3. The concentrate can be used as a raw material for the preparation of coconut vinegar or nata-de-coco. 4. Concentrated tender coconut water, which retains the natural flavour, besides good keeping quality, would lead to greater convenience and increased consumption. 5. Individual and institutional users would be relieved from the drudgery of cutting open of tender coconut, which is tedious operation. 6. Further, it offers additional advantages such as less storage space, extended shelf life and availability throughout the year irrespective of the season. 7. It can be used in preparation of soft drinks, fruit juices, jams, jellies, candies, chocolates, milk-based drinks, ice-creams etc. Conventional thermal concentration methods are not suitable for the concentration of tender coconut water in view of loss of delicate flavor due to long exposure to thermal treatment besides being energy intensive. Therefore, in this present invention a hybrid process was adopted for the concentration of coconut water, which includes initial concentration of.coconut water by reverse osmosis and further concentration by thermal treatment. This novel approach reduces the time of exposure to heat treatment, thus retaining the flavors of tender coconut to a great extent. Reference cannot be made to any other work, which is directly related to concentration of tender coconut water, since no concentration of tender coconut water (to the extent that it is self-stable) is reported in literature. However to draw an analogy, reference is made in the following section about the concentration up to 20 °Brix in case of coconut water and higher concentration in case of other fruit juice. Reference can be made to the work of Jayaraman and Das Gupta (Beverage & Food World, March 23-26, 1996) on concentration of tender coconut water, wherein maximum concentration of 24 °Brix was achieved by reverse osmosis. Further concentration was not attempted. Reference can be made to Indian Patent No. 142904 in which tender coconut water was concentrated (~ up to 30 °Brix) by thermal evaporation and formulated with the addition of sucrose. Reference can be made to GB 2318969, the first ever patent obtained by any United Nations Agency (Food and Agriculture Organization) for the cold sterilization of tender coconut water, wherein tender coconut water was preserved by microfiltration technology. The concentration of tender coconut water was not attempted. The main object of the present invention is to develop a hybrid process for the preparation of concentrated tender coconut water. Another object of present invention is to produce concentrated tender coconut wafer having good shelf life and better sensory characteristics. In the drawing accompanying the specification, Figure 1 represents the schematic diagram of reverses osmosis (RO) system; the reverse osmosis unit consists of heat exchanger, membrane module, pressure gauge, triplex pump and a valve. The feed is fed (through heat exchanger) to pump inlet, pressurized and supplied at a pressure to membrane module. Permeate is passed through membrane tubes and concentrate (retentate) is passed through control valve, which maintains the desired pressure with in the membrane module. Retentate was recycled. Membrane module consists of 18 tubes (diameter 1.5 cm, length 1.2 m). Figure 2 represents the schematic diagram of a thin film evaporation system. It consists of single jacketed tube containing an internal agitator. Feed enters at the top of the jacketed section and is spread out into a thin, highly turbulent film by the vertical blades of the agitator. Concentrate leaves from the bottom of the jacketed section; vapor rises from the vaporizing zone into an unjacketed separator, which is somewhat larger in diameter than the evaporating tube. In the separator the agitator blades through entrained liquid outward against stationary vertical plates. The droplets coalesce on these plates and return to the evaporating section. Liquid free vapor escapes through outlets at the top of the unit. Accordingly, a process for the preparation of tender coconut water concentrate, which comprises: a) cutting open the tender coconut of 6-7 months maturity and collecting the water in sterile SS vessel, b) filtering the water obtained from above by known methods c) pasteurizing the filtered coconut water at 80-90 °C for 2-4 min d) concentrating the pasteurized coconut water obtained from step (c) to 20 °Brix at trans-membrane present of 40 bar by reverse osmosis e) concentrating further to atleast 75 °Brix in a evaporator at a steam pressure of 1 -1 5 ka/cm2 and 20~25 incnes vacuum to obtain concentrated coconut water The present invention leads to the development of the process for the concentrated tender coconut water. The following steps are involved in the process. 1. Tender coconut water was obtained by cutting tender coconut (6-7 month maturity ) with the help of a conventional chopping knife. 2. The coconut water thus obtained was filtered with the help of a muslin cloth in order to remove any foreign materials. 3. Filtered coconut water was pasteurized in a tubular heat exchanger at 90 °C for 3 min. 4. Pasteurized tender coconut water was subjected to reverse osmosis system. The water was concentrated up to -20 °Brix. The cellulose acetate type of membrane was used for RO concentration in PCI system. 5. Further concentration up to 75 °Brix was done in a thin film evaporator. 6. The concentrated tender coconut water was packed in airtight bottles. The flow chart for the production of concentrated tender coconut water is given in Figure 3. The composition of natural and concentrated tender coconut water have been provided in Table 2: Sensory studies were done with the help of Quantitative Descriptive Analysis QDA) where the attributes were quantified on 15 cm structured scale. The samples were evaluated against fresh sample after diluting to the same concentration by trained panel. Profilogram of the tender coconut water concentrate is presented in Figure 4. Table 2: Composition of fresh and concentrated tender coconut water (by reverse osmosis as well as by reverse osmosis and evaporation) (Table Removed) The following examples are given by way of illustration of the present invention and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present invention. EXAMPLE -1 The 30 kg of fresh tender coconut water was taken and filtered using muslin cloth in order to remove particles offender coconut endosperm and extraneous material, the filtered was checked for TSS with the help of a refracto meter and was found to be 4.5 °Brix. The tender coconut water was pasteurized at 90 °C for 3 min and then subjected to reverse osmosis and concentrated up to 20 °Brix. Beyond which it was not possible due to the requirement of higher transmembrane pressure. Further concentration up to 70 °Brix was achieved in thin film evaporator at 60 °C and 25 inches vacuum the concentrate was collected in air tight pre sterilized glass bottles. The product obtained was of transparent creamish colour. EXAMPLE -2 The 55 kg of fresh tender coconut water was taken and filtered using muslin cloth in order to remove particles offender coconut endosperm and extraneous material, the filtered was checked for TSS with the help of a refracto meter and was found to be 5.0 "Brix. The tender coconut water was pasteurized at 90 °C for 3 min and then subjected to reverse osmosis and concentrated up to 19 °Brix. Beyond which it was not possible due to the requirement of higher transmembrane pressure. Further, concentration up to 75 °Brix was achieved in thin film evaporator at 60 °C and 25 inches vacuum the concentrate was collected in air tight pre sterilized glass bottles. The product obtained was of transparent creamish colour. The main advantage of the present invention is: 1. The process is a novel hybrid process involving RO and evaporation, thus reducing the time of exposure to thermal effect. Major amount of water is removed by RO, which is a nonthermal and energy efficient process. Further concentration by evaporation reduced the processing (evaporation) time significantly. 2. Potential and users of this product may be food and beverage industry, fermentation industry, hospital, research institution etc. 3. Process is ease to scale up. 4. The product can meet the demand of fresh coconut water in case of non- season as well as in this area coconut is not grown, and it is expensive to transport coconut, which constitute about 75% of the weight. 5. The product is creamish transparent having TSS 70 °Brix, which does not require any additional preservative. If packed in air tight glass bottle, the shelf life of product is expected to more than a year. 6. Sensory studies indicate that the pleasantness and taste of tender coconut water prepared out of the product developed was similar to that of fresh tender coconut water. Further sensory acceptability of the product was quite high. We Claim: 1. A process for the preparation of tender coconut water concentrate, which comprises: a) cutting open the tender coconut of 6-7 months maturity and collecting the water in sterile SS vessel, b) filtering the water obtained from above by known methods, c) pasteurizing the filtered coconut water at 80-90 °C for 2-4 min, d) characterized in that concentrating the pasteurized coconut water obtained from step (c) to 20 °Brix at trans-membrane present of 40 bar by reverse osmosis, e) concentrating further to 75 °Brix in a thin film evaporator at a steam pressure of 1 -1.5 kg/cm2 and 20-25 inches vacuum to obtain coconut water concentrate. 2. A process for the preparation of tender coconut water concentrate substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings and examples.

Documents:

540-DEL-2003-Abstract-(19-08-2009).pdf

540-del-2003-abstract.pdf

540-DEL-2003-Claims-(07-01-2010).pdf

540-DEL-2003-Claims-(19-08-2009).pdf

540-del-2003-claims.pdf

540-DEL-2003-Correspondence-Others-(07-01-2010).pdf

540-DEL-2003-Correspondence-Others-(19-08-2009).pdf

540-del-2003-correspondence-others.pdf

540-del-2003-correspondence-po.pdf

540-DEL-2003-Description (Complete)-(07-01-2010).pdf

540-DEL-2003-Description (Complete)-(19-08-2009).pdf

540-del-2003-description(complete).pdf

540-DEL-2003-Drawings-(07-01-2010).pdf

540-del-2003-drawings.pdf

540-DEL-2003-Form-1-(19-08-2009).pdf

540-del-2003-form-1.pdf

540-del-2003-form-18.pdf

540-del-2003-form-2.pdf

540-DEL-2003-Form-3-(19-08-2009).pdf

540-del-2003-form-3.pdf