Extension of Shelf Life of Aloo Paratha using Hurdle Technology.

Aloo Paratha is unleavened dough stuffed with a spiced mixture of mashed potato which
is rolled out & cooked in a hot tawa with ghee or butter. Presently Aloo paratha cannot be stored
for more than 24 hrs due to microbial spoilage .Our objective is to extend the shelf life of Aloo
paratha for a minimum of 10 weeks without using any chemical preservatives. To extend the
shelf life of Aloo paratha, Hurdle technology was used in this study in which several
preservation parameters are used in combination so that damage to the organoleptic properties
are kept to the minimum.
In this study several hurdles like oxygen reduction in the head space, pasteurization, low
temperature storage and packaging were used in extending the shelf life. Sterilization has also
been carried out on Aloo paratha to make the product shelf stable and we have also carried out
studies on unprocessed Aloo paratha with the help of partial vacuum and stored it at 3ºC to
extend minimum shelf life of 10 days.
We have carried out microbiological analysis, sensory analysis and color measurement
for processed as well as unprocessed Aloo paratha. Microbial result obtained clearly established
the applicability of the hurdle technology for the product Aloo paratha. TPC, Coliforms, Yeast
and molds were well within the limit (less than 104) in the pasteurized Aloo paratha at the end of
10th week. Also in case of unprocessed product, they were within the limits at the end of 10th day
but pasteurized sample when stored at ambient temperature were not acceptable sensorily as well
as microbiologically after 24 hrs. Sterilized product with a F0 value of 4 has established
microbial safety and hence periodical analysis were not carried out.
Sensory result obtained which determines the acceptance of the product was more than
7.0 at the end of 10th week for pasteurized product stored at refrigerated condition but
sterilized product kept at ambient temperature which determines that it was not completely
acceptable at the end of 10th week due to appearance of oil on the surface and surface
hardening. The sensory profile for unprocessed sample shows overall acceptability of. 8.2 at the
end of 10th day. The shelf life of Aloo paratha has been extended, for 10 weeks with the help of
partial vacuum, heat treatment and low temperature storage and in case of unprocessed Aloo
paratha, we have extended the shelf life for 10 days with the help of partial vacuum & low
temperature storage but without any heat treatment. The color status of Aloo paratha analyzed
on 0th day & after storage of 10 weeks in both the variables did not show much change.