Coconut - Tropical and Subtropical Fruits: Postharvest Physiology, Processing and Packaging - page 162

nel of coconut. The dehydrated kernel can be grounded into
a creamed paste using a grinder. In the process of grinding,
the temperature of the paste might rise above 80 ◦ C, which
may help to pasteurize the substance by inactivating micro-
bial and enzyme activities. As the moisture content of the
resulting creamed paste is < 2.5%, it has a longer shelf life
at ambient temperature. The shelf life stability test carried
out over a period of 7 weeks indicated that free fatty acid
(FFA) content of the product at room temperature does not
rise above 0.07%. As a concentrated substance, creamed
paste is found to have 65% fat, 8% protein, 4% dietary
fiber, and 17.5% other carbohydrates. For culinary uses,
the creamed paste can be reconstituted with an appropriate
amount of warm water to make it into either thick or thin
milk (Gunathilake et al., 2004).
Coconut milk can also be preserved through an appro-
priate drying method. Coconut milk in powder form is a
convenient product for large-scale industrial or foodservice
users (Rastogi and Raghavarao, 2006). Currently spray dry-
ing is the method of choice for turning liquid milk into
powder form in many countries (Arumughan et al., 1987).
Application of spray drying directly to fresh coconut milk
might not bring the desired product, unless it is stabilized,
for example, by adding a protein component such as sodium
caseinate as a stabilizer (Hassan, 1985) to form a protec-
tive barrier around the dispersed droplets of oil molecules
to prevent their aggregation (Damodaran, 1994; Dickinson
and Stainsby, 1998). Apart from this, the protein compo-
nent would be needed to act as the matrix to carry the
water-insoluble oil (Hassan, 1985).
Coconut milk as the feedstock for spray drying mainly
contains simple sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, and
fructose, which are known to lower glass transition ( t g )
temperature (Roos, 1993). Constituents with lower t g can
complicate spray drying, leading to problems such as stick-
iness behavior. As a remedial measure, an appropriate dry-
ing aid would be needed to raise the t g temperature of
the feedstock (Obon et al., 2009). For this purpose, ei-
ther corn syrup solids or maltodextrin can be incorpo-
rated into coconut milk as drying aids in spray drying
(Hassan, 1985).
For spray drying, liquid milk obtained from the pared ker-
nel should be used. Unless the brown testa around the kernel
is removed, achieving a creamy white color in the end prod-
uct might be difficult. To reduce the microbial load, kernels
are usually sanitized using hot water prior to disintegration.
The milk squeezed out of the disintegrated kernel is added
with appropriate amounts of the additives prior to homog-
enization. The homogenized feed sample is then subjected
to pasteurization before feeding into the spray dryer. The

Table 9.6. Product quality specification of
desiccated coconut.

Characteristic Specification

Physical
Color Natural white

Flavor Mild and sweet coconut

taste

Impurities Not more than 5 dark

specks/100 g

Chemical
Moisture (%, by mass)

3.0 max

Fat (%, by mass) 65.0 min

FFA (%, as lauric acid) 0.3 max

pH (as reconstituted in
water)

6.1-6.8

Residual SO 2 50 ppm max

Microbiological
Total plate count

5000 col/g max

Yeast count 50 col/g max

Mold count 50 col/g max

E. coli Negative

Salmonella Negative

Source: Coconut Development Board of India (2010).

countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand) as a substi-
tute for fresh milk.
Coconut-creamed paste is a concentrated product that can
be used as an alternative for highly perishable liquid milk
(Fig. 9.4). It is prepared out of the dehydrated shredded ker-

Figure 9.4. Coconut-creamed paste in frozen form.