Development of low-cost mini retort and its usage in preservation of foods

Recently consumers have become more health-conscious in their food choices and as a result, the market demand for “retortable food pouches” has increased rapidly. The retort available in the market is of high cost and also occupies huge space with cumbersome operating procedures. The present study focuses on designing and fabricating a mini model retort at low cost to suit for house-hold purposes so as to enable small-scale food processors to make use of the technology. The newly fabricated mini retort with inbuilt heating coil and air compressor is cost effective, compact and also requires ‘single phase’ power connection which enables its usage in villages, houses, messes etc. Also three different types of foods viz: Fluid (milk), solid (maize), and particulate (vegetable kurma) were preserved using the fabricated mini retort based on their respective F0 Value. The retort processed food products were stored in Room temperature and were analyzed for its quality parameters viz: Bio-Chemical Analysis, Microbial Analysis and Sensory Evaluation during the storage period. The TPC and Coliform was analysed for every 30 days of storage and was not detected in any of the sample till 120 days of storage. Biochemical analysis and Sensory evaluation also depicted that the products could be stored for 120 days with better nutrition retention and overall acceptability. Hence, thefood products viz., Milk, Maize and vegetable Kurmacan be stored for 120 days using the mini retort.