Module 1. Status of food processing industry and future prospects

Lesson 4

MAGNITUDE AND INTERDEPENDENCE OF DAIRY AND FOOD INDUSTRY-II

4.1 Introduction

In the previous lesson the need for studying interdependence of dairy with food industry was emphasized and the dependence of dairy with baking industry was dealt. In this lesson, the dependence of chocolate and meat industry with dairy industry will be discussed.

4.2 Milk Solids in Chocolate

4.2.1 Milk solids

Roller dried Whole milk powder (WMP) is preferred over spray-dried ones. Roller dried powders tend to have a somewhat spicy and salty taste whereas spray dried ones have a distinct milky flavour. The high content of free surface fat (> 95% vs. < 10% in spray-dried powder) results in favourable rheological properties during the manufacturing steps of mixing and conching. The energy consumption is reduced and amount of cocoa butter can be reduced (by about 2-3% of cocoa butter) under constant rheological conditions. The impact of free milk fat resulted in lower viscosity, quicker melting, reduced hardness, and obtaining smaller particles through refining process.

Na-caseinate can be used to replace dried milk in chocolate. Incorporation of buttermilk powder can exert some emulsifying action. Use of whey products may offer benefits by reducing the sugar content and chocolate liquor enhance flavor and may afford resistance to fat bloom (i.e. grayish haze on chocolate as a result of greater fat crystal size).

4.2.2 Milk crumb

For milk chocolate, one of the biggest flavour differences that may occur is due to the chocolates made from milk powder (Continental Europe) and the ‘Milk crumb’ (UK and parts of America). Crumb is made by the evaporation and drying of milk components together with sugar and cocoa liquor (Table 4.1). As cocoa contains natural antioxidants, it improved keeping properties of dehydrated form over extended periods without refrigeration. The drying process develops distinct cooked and caramelized flavour too. The already developed caramelized flavour and the removal of undesirable flavour elements during the evaporation and drying stages in crumb manufacture reduced the conching time considerably. Conching is a process in chocolate making wherein the mixture of ground cocoa mass, sugar (with or without milk solids) and cocoa butter is subjected to mechanical treatment using rollers with heating to obtain a flowable, homogneous chocolate mass.

Table 4.1 Typical crumb recipe

Ingredients	Percentage of total product
Moisture	1
Sucrose	53
Milk solids	32
Cocoa liquor	14

To make chocolate using Milk Crumb, only cocoa butter needs to be added externally.

The advantages of using Milk crumb in Milk chocolate manufacture are darker colour, higher flavour intensity, smoother texture and better mouth feel.

4.2.3 Butter oil

It is cheaper than cocoa butter. It can be used to replace 1-5% of the total fat. Excess replacement softens the chocolate and has adverse effect on the gloss, hardening and demoulding.

4.3 Dairy Ingredients in Meat Products

Meat and dairy products have several things in common. Both are appreciated from organoleptic and nutritional points of view. They have been regarded as two of the main protein sources for humans. In a modern diet, meat contributes about 35% of the protein intake, and milk about 25%.

Meat is very important for the intake of iron and certain vitamins viz., thiamine and riboflavin, while dairy foods are critical for the intake of calcium and vitamins.

Milk ingredients especially milk proteins can play an important role in the stabilization of meat products. In many countries, milk protein (caseinate) is legally allowed in meat, poultry and seafood products. In US, caseinate is approved for use in sausages; skim milk powder and whey powder is permitted in such allied foods.

The functional properties of milk proteins in meat products include stabilizing, emulsifying, immobilizing water, control texture and consistency and improve color and organoleptic properties. Caseinates behave better than whey proteins; caseinates does not show any heat gelation and denaturation and thus contributes to high viscosity in solution.

Milk proteins are used to overcome stability problems. It emulsifies free fat in meat emulsions and saves salt-soluble part of myofibrillar proteins (SSP) for water binding. Since large numbers of small fat globules are created in the presence of milk protein, the expelled water during heating of meat is reduced, thereby preventing shrinkage.

Milk proteins can be applied in three ways:

(a) as a powder at the beginning of the comminuting process

(b) as a jelly (milk protein is dissolved in water in a bowl chopper or colloid mill), usually containing 10-15% milk protein in water

Use of milk protein as an ingredient in coarse and non-comminuted meat such as pumped has leads to improvement in the water binding property. Lactose helps in masking the flavour imparted by use of phosphates and bitter aftertaste, besides imparting low sweetness profile. It also has reducing action and improves stability of meat products. Hence lactose is desirable in liver products, cooked hams, and cooked sausages. Calcium reduced Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP) has found application in meat products since calcium negatively influences the binding properties of meat proteins.

4.4 Products Made From a Blend of Milk and Vegetable Milks

Soymilk and ‘Paneer like’ products have been made from a blend of cow/buffalo milk and soy milk in various proportions, desirable being 70:30 or still lesser quantity of soymilk in the milk blend. Such product is advantageous in being cheaper, complementing the fat (unsaturated from soybean) and amino acid profile, reducing the cholesterol and lactose content, and developing new products. Such soymilk from blend of milk and soymilk can be suitably flavoured to yield more acceptable products. Table 5.4 gives the examples of products made from blend of cow/buffalo milk with soymilk and the benefits obtained thereof.

Table 4.2 Examples of food products made from a blend of soymilk and cow/buffalo milks

Product	Effects
Ice cream	Formulation composed of soy milk (8% TS), SMP, Cream (60% fat), sugar and stabilizer. Deleted soybean variety name. Low-cost acceptable product with high protein content (5.09 vs. 3.34% in control) was obtained, except for slight beany flavour, chalky taste and low overrun.
Shrikhand	Blending milk with soy milk (40:60, w/w) yielded chakka suitable for Shrikhand making. The protein content of Shrikhand with such soymilk supplementation was 8.8% on dry matter basis.
Paneer/chhana-like product	Cow/toned milk: soy milk (30:70, w/w) had no adverse effect on quality of chhana analogue with respect to flavour and hardness; the yield was increased. The fat content of paneer-like product tended to decrease with increase in level of soy milk in the blend.