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Dahi, related products – Industry point of view update

Thursday, 16 January, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Prajapati JB and Sreeja V

Introduction
Among the traditional milk products of India, dahi and its related products occupy a pivotal position in the daily diet of people. Being one of the oldest, most popular and widely consumed fermented milk of India, dahi, resembles Western yogurt in most aspects. The use of dahi has been prevalent since Vedic times, and it is mentioned in ancient scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads and various hymns. During Lord Krishna’s time (ca. 3000 B.C.), dahi, butter milk and country butter were held on a high pedestal. Dahi is an intermediate product for manufacture of traditional butter and ghee and is used as a base for preparation of related products such as lassi, chhash, shrikhand, kadhi, raita, curd rice and so on. It is a nutritiously balanced food containing almost all the nutrients present in milk, in a more assimilable form. Dahi is also traditionally used as an article in rituals and an ingredient of panchamrut (five nectors). Dahi, which came into use as a means of preserving milk nutrients, was probably used by Aryans in their daily diet, as it reduced putrefactive changes and provided an acidic, refreshing taste (Prajapati and Nair, 2008). It is believed that dahi has valuable therapeutic properties and helps in curing gastrointestinal disorders. Dahi added with probiotic bacteria enhances its health benefits such as immune enhancement, blood pressure reduction, antiatherogenic effect, antidiabetic effect, anticarcinogenic effect, antioxidative effect and curing of gastrointestinal disorders (Prajapati and Sreeja, 2013).

Current status of dahi industry in india
About 7% of the total annual milk produced in India is utilised for dahi making for direct consumption (Prajapati, 2011). Dahi accounts for around 90% of the total cultured milk products produced in India (Behare and Prajapati, 2007). This includes both organised and unorganised sectors of milk production in India. Large portion of dahi is still made in homes. In the local markets, significant amount of dahi is produced mainly by halwais (sweet and milk shops) and small dairy farms. Recently several dairies have begun producing and marketing dahi on a large scale. The major players in this sector in India are Amul, Nestle, Mother Dairy, Vita, Paras and a few more.The recent decade saw elevation of dahi as functional food. Already considered good for digestion, dahi is the most appropriate product to introduce probiotics in the Indian scenario. Probiotic dahi is a regular curd with added advantage of unique probiotic cultures like Lactobacillus acidophilus or Bifidobacterium bifidum. Probiotics is a flourishing market globally which is expected to be worth $32.6 billion by 2014, with the Europe and Asia accounting for nearly 42 and 30% of the total revenues respectively. In India, this market is though at a very nascent stage is gathering pace. Indian probiotic market was valued at $2 million as per 2010 estimates and it is poised to quadruple by 2015 due to the arrival of Indian and multinational companies in the Indian probiotic market. With their arrival, the Indian probiotic market turnover is expected to reach $8 million by the year 2015 (Raja and Arunachalam, 2011). The major players in the probiotic category in India are four FMCG giants viz, Amul, Nestle, Mother Dairy and Yakult India. Probiotic dahi has been made available in the Indian market by major manufacturers like Amul, Nestle, Danone and Mother Dairy. Nestle India entered the probiotic milk market by launching its low-fat product, Nesvita Dahi. Mother Dairy introduced its “b-Activ Plus’’ - a probiotic curd with dietary fibre. Also available in the market are drinkable probiotic products range such as lassi and cultured butter milk (Gawai and Prajapati, 2012).

Technological innovations in dahi production
Innovations in dahi processing may include use of techniques such as membrane processing, carbonation, application of high hydraulic pressure, use of improved dairy cultures, biopreservation, and so on (Khurana and Kanawjia, 2007). Major culture supplier like Chr-Hansen India has been providing dairy cultures for fermented milk products like Dahi, Lassi, Chhash / mattha for domestic and large dairies. Now they are targeting Indian families to manage micro- dairies all over India and empower them with the latest technology in dahi making. This initiative to upgrade Indian micro-dairies to modernized dahi production will help in opening the door to a world of new business opportunities bringing the company closer to consumers (www.chr-hansen.com). Good quality dahi and related modified products can be prepared by application of technical operations which can provide low fat, sweetened, low-calorie, fruit / pulp added, fortified, flavored, lactose hydrolyzed, misti dahi, pasteurized / UHT processed, drinking, probiotic and concentrated dahi.

Scope and opportunities
Currently, only a small percentage of the raw materials in India are processed into value-added products even though the demand for processed and convenience foods is on the rise. Also with growing incomes at both the rural and the urban level, the market potential is expected to expand further. This demand-supply gap indicates an untouched opportunity in areas such as health foods, convenience foods and drinks, novel milk products and so on. India at present accounts for less than 1% of the total world market turnover in the probiotic industry and it is a huge deficit considering the fact that India has the highest cattle population and India being the world’s highest milk producer (IDF, 2010; Prajapati, 2011; Raja and Arunachalam, 2011). Fermented milks containing functional ingredients such as probiotics, prebiotics, dietary fibres, and so on have tremendous potential for growth and development. Dahi-based foods containing a mixture of probiotics and prebiotics (famously called synbiotics) are yet another category of fermented foods which can offer the benefits of both probiotics and prebiotics. The logic behind developing synbiotics is that a combination of probiotics and prebiotics may improve the survival of probiotic organisms as they pass through the stomach and small intestine, thus enhancing their effects in the colon. The prebiotic ingredient improves a probiotic’s viability and vitality, as well as its survival chances in the digestive tract and its subsequent attachment and growth rate. Currently, the best synbiotic combinations are bifidobacteria and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), Lactobacillus GG and inulins, and bifidobacteria and lactobacilli with FOS or inulin. Fermented milks, yogurt, kefir and some cheeses are the most popular synbiotic foods (Brannon, 2006). Dairy Science College, AAU, Anand (Gujarat), is the first in India to deposit two Indian probiotic cultures, i.e. Lactobacillus helveticus MTCC 5463 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus MTCC 5462 as patent deposits at International Culture Depository at IMTECH, Chandigarh. Several probiotic and synbiotic products in the form of set dahi, stirred dahi, raita, lassi or butter milk have been developed using these cultures (Prajapati, 2011). Additionally, fermented whey drink, herbal probiotic lassi, carbonated probiotic milk, and so on have also been developed. All the products were organoleptically acceptable upto 3- 4 weeks at refrigeration temperature and had optimum dose of probiotic lactobacilli (Prajapati and Sreeja, 2013). Although the effects of a combination of probiotics and prebiotics appear to be synergistic, currently there is limited scientific evidence to support a synergistic effect. Lots of research works are being done to develop large number of fermented / nonfermented products using functional starter cultures, but most of them are not commercially available. However, their commercial level production and marketing can be done through more trials and right approaches, thus widening and diversifying probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics lines of products. Also, there exists an urgent need for improving the cold-chain infrastructure, market penetration in rural areas, increasing consumer awareness and strengthening technological grounds to provide quality products which can fulfill consumer expectations.

Conclusion
Dahi and its related products were, are and will remain an essential part of the daily diet of Indian population. They can also serve as an excellent base material to generate an array of products that fit into the current consumer demand for tasty and health-driven foods. Over the past century, voluminous scientific knowledge has well established the technological and nutritional aspects of dahi and related fermented milks. Innovation and value addition to dahi and its related products will provide ample opportunities to FMCGs and co-operative food industries for increasing their product portfolio. As the base products are already been known to the common people, the marketing of the new products will be much easier. In spite of being considered as a wholesome food itself as well as a raw material for a variety of other food items, dahi still remains a product to be explored, researched, understood and scientifically validated completely to reap its health benefits. Application of novel food processing technologies as well as advances in microbiology and nutrition can help us in more value addition to dahi and improving its shelf life.

(The authors are from department of dairy microbiology,Anand Agricultural University,Gujarat)

References
Behare PV and Prajapati JB (2007). Thermization as a method for enhancing the shelf life of cultured butter milk. Indian J. Dairy Sci. 60 : 86-93.
Brannon CA (2006). Prebiotics as “Good Carbs”. Today’s Dietitian 8(8): 12 .
Gawai K and Prajapati JB (2012). Status and scope of dahi industry in India. Indian Dairyman. 64(7): 46-50.
ICMR-DBT (2011). ICMR-DBT guild lines for evaluation of probiotics in food. Indian J. Med. Res. 134. pp. 22-25.
IDF (2010). Bulletin of the International Dairy Federation. The World Dairy Situation, 2010. 446/2010. pp.14.
Khurana, H. K. and Kanawjia, S. K. (2007). Recent trends in development of fermented milks. Curr. Nutr. Food. Sci., 3: 91-108.
Prajapati JB and Nair BM (2008). The History of Fermented Foods. In: “Hand book of Fermented Functional foods”. Farnworth, E. R. (Ed.), 2nd Edn., CRC Press, Boca Raton. Pp: 2-6.
Prajapati JB (2011). Traditional dairy products in developing countries. Invited paper presented at World Dairy Summit organized by International Dairy Federation, 16-19 October 2011, Parma, Italy.
Prajapati JB and Sreeja V (2013). Dahi and Related products. NewDelhi Publishers and SASNET-FF, NewDelhi.
Raja, B. R. and Arunachalam, K. D. (2011). Market potential for probiotic nutritional supplements in India. African J. Busi. Manag. 5(14): 5418-5423.