Traditional Indian Dairy Products are manufactured in India using an age old practice which varies from place to place. For manufacture of these products industrially, a standard formulation is required. Thabdi, a region specific, very popular heat desiccated milk product is one of such products which has not been studied scientifically. Sugar plays an important role in physico-chemical, sensory, textural characteristics and also the shelf life of any milk sweet. Hence for process standardization of Thabdi manufacture, different levels of sugar i.e. 4, 6, 8 and 10 (percent of milk) were studied so that an optimum level yielding best organoleptic characteristics in final product can be selected. The product was made from milk standardized to 0.66 Fat:SNF level and added with ghee @ 1.2 % of milk at the time of colour and texture development stage as selected from the earlier phase of study. Based on the results obtained, a level of 8 % sugar addition on the milk basis at the time of manufacture has been selected to have full taste and sensory attributes.
Keywords: Heat desiccated; Physico-chemical; Sensory; Sugar; Texture; Thabdi; Traditional.