Spray dried infant food from buffalo milk--project costs.

Though India ranks third in the world in milk production
(about 20 million tons/year), the entire requirement
of milk powder and infant foods (about
3,000 tons/year) is being imported. Attempts have
not so far been made to make use of surplus buffalo
milk available in certain parts of Punjab, Saurashtra,
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Bombay, for this purpose.
The processing of buffalo milk into milk powder
and infant foods presents certain problems, not
encountered with cow's milk. The Central Food Technological
Research Institute, Mysore has investigated
the problem and has established the conditions
for the production of these products. The steps
involved in the process are pasteurization, partial
skimming, adjustment of composition, concentration,
fortification with vitamins, homogenization and spray
drying. The protein (20-22 per cent) and fat (14
per cent) contents of the final product are those
considered optimum for children in tropical countries.
The cost of producing 1 lb. of the product works out to
Rs. 2.