Tender coconut water
The current methods of preserving tender coconut water involve some amount of heating to kill bacteria. But thermal sterilization also removes useful chemicals from coconut water and impacts taste and fragrance.
IIT Kharagpur has come up with a new method for storing the stuff, using membrane technology. A team led by Prof Sirshendu De has invented a device which uses a ‘poly acrylonitrile (PAN)’ based hollow fiber membrane. This device filters out sites of potent bacterial growth and increases shelf life of tender coconut water to 18 weeks.
Thus, this process increases the shelf life of tender coconut water significantly without adding any preservative after aseptic packaging. The final product from ultrafiltration is rich in polyphenol (anti-oxidant), sugar, potassium and sodium.
IIT Kharagpur says the PAN membrane is very economical.
This technology is available for transfer to the industry. For details, contact:
Dean
Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy
IIT Kharagpur 721302, INDIA
Email: deansr@hijli.iitkgp.ernet.in
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