Control of matting temperature during pressing of Paneer and its effect on Paneer quality

An attempt was made to design, fabricate and evaluate a heat exchanger for controlling the matting temperature of Paneer during pressing. Based on preliminary investigations, the range of process parameters to be evaluated during the pressing of Paneer was selected as: pressure (2, 3, and 4 kg/cm²), matting temperature (63, 66 and 69 °C) for pressing time of 8, 10 and 12 min. Experiments were designed in a central composite design for 20 runs and the Paneer was evaluated for its moisture content, hardness, springiness, chewiness, cohesiveness, bulk density, porosity and sensory attributes. It was observed that with increasing pressure and matting temperature, the hardness of the product increased; this corresponded with reduced moisture content and porosity of the product. The springiness of the samples correlated linearly with increasing matting temperature and pressing time. Increasing the pressure during pressing resulted in poorer sensory scores. The process conditions for pressing of Paneer under controlled matting conditions were optimised using Response Surface Methodology for moisture content, overall acceptability, hardness and springiness of the pressed product. It was observed that the moisture content of Paneer pressed under controlled matting temperature was marginally lower than the control Paneer, the overall acceptability for the experimental samples was higher with superior body and texture scores.