Studies on the Effect of Butter Milk Solids and Vegetable Oil on Preparation of “Filled Chhana”

The production of Chhana is confined to the eastern region of the country. It contains less than 70 percent moisture and approximate 50 per cent fat on dry matter basis. Chhana is an acid coagulated indigenous milk product which is very widelyused in India as a base material for the preparation of various sweetmeats like sandesh, rasogolla, cham-cham, rasmalai, balsahi, Khurma, pantooa etc. Butter milk containing about 10% milk solids, after modifying the composition with vegetable oil and skim milk powder (3.0% fat and 8.5% SNF), can be converted into chhana like product to be utilized in making various sweetmeats, viz Rasogolla, Sandesh, Cham-cham, Rasmalai, Pantua, and Rajbhog etc. Vegetable oil, being cheaper than milk fat, can be mixed with butter milk to obtain a filled chhana which would definitely be cheaper than the normal chhana. It will be helpful for people suffering from protein energy malnutrition because this product is rich inprotein and energy and it will be also helpful for people suffering from lactose intolerance where diet should contain restricted amounts or no lactose because in the absence of enzyme lactase, lactose is not hydrolyzed to glucose and galactose. Almost 90 per cent of lactose content of initial milk is lost in whey during chhana preparation. On other hand it will be helpful fromeconomic point of view for those people who come under economically weaker section because by replacing milk fat with edible vegetable oil the cost of the product can considerably be reduced.