Problem Description:
Sugarcane juice is known as a high-energy drink that is natural, sweet and is a healthy alternative to refined sugar added drinks. Sugarcane juice added with ginger and lemon is a common refreshing drink sold ubiquitously along the roads in Indian cities and towns. Sugarcanes are crushed using manual or motorized crushers to extract sugarcane juice and consumed fresh. But it needs a hygienic handling which is generally not taken care of. Liquid cane juice is always prone for microbial contamination and spoilage and has very poor shelf life. To improve shelf life pasteurization and preservatives are added and stores in bottles, which is always unsafe if not processed flawlessly. If water in the sugarcane juice removed, the solids collected as a dry product retaining the natural qualitiesand packed will offer good scope for a longer shelf life and commercial advantages in packing, storage and transport costs. Solution Description:
ICAR-SBI has developed a process to produce a dry product of sugarcane juice having longer shelf life and suitable for commercial applications. The process involves freeze dried sugarcane juice product by employing freeze drying or lyophilization process to dry the filtered sugarcane juice followed by (a) blending natural and permitted synthetic food flavours, colour, stabilizers, anti caking agents etc., (if needed) (b) applying dry extrusion to prepare dry extrudes, (c) applying spheronization/granulation on dry extrudes to produce spheroid/granule product and (4) packing the spheroid/granule product. Dried product is highly hygroscopic and glistening flaky or dry lumps in nature, with a water activity of about 0.3 aw. The critical problem associated with freeze dried product is very low moisture content, poor flow ability and high hygroscopicity leads to agglomeration and formation of lumps when stored in ambient conditions and exposure to atmospheric air. To get better quality product the dried freeze dried product is compacted manually or by employing machinery like dry extruder to produce dry extrudes. This granulated product can be produced as per the requirement; however, a 0.5 to 3.0 mm spheroid diameter may be preferred for regular sweetener or instant juice use. This granulated product has low hygroscopicity, low lump formation, good flow ability and better shelf life. The dry product can be stored about six months under ambient conditions and about two years if stored under refrigerated conditions. This product can be used for preparation of instant sugarcane juice or as a regular sweetener. This dry sugarcane juice product is also useful as flavour enhancer of food, beverages, sweets, confectioneries, bakery items, dairy products, weaning food, novel value added foods and medicinal / pharmaceutical preparations.