Research Projects

The curd or dahi is one of the staple milk products find in every Indian plate. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act describes dahi as a product obtained from pasteurized or boiled milk by souring (natural or otherwise), using harmless lactic acid or other bacterial cultures. The curd in Indian market is available in loose and packet form. The quality measurement of curd is essential to maintain the uniformity of curd consumption and health benefit. The quality of milk used generally determine the curd firmness, sourness and volume of whey. In industry, only the temperature, probiotic microorganisms and time are used to determine the curd formation from milk In this process lactose in milk is converted into lactic acid. Sometime, this leads to the formation of poor quality of curd or even sour curd. On-the-shelf curd in the market does not guarantee its quality, firmness and sourness. In house-hold practice there is no define or control process which assure the formation of good quality of curd. The formation of curd rather based on people experience which led to over fermentation or over processed curd. So, there is necessity of a control process for the formation of good quality of curd. The system/sensor must be smart, contactless, reliable and assure the formation of good quality of curd. The impedimetric type sensor with suitable sensing film having reliable performance will be utilized with proper modification for determining the various electrical characteristic of curd. The efficacy of the sensor enhanced by proper selection of sensing film and its structure. The current proposal advocates the use of cross structure for analysing the different electrical behaviour of curd during the process of fermentation. The artificial intelligence will be utilized for optimizing, the curd making process and its quality for various milk types. The quality of the curd will be categorized with help of suitable algorithm that includes, Reinforcement Learning, Transfer Learning, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Autoencoders, Decision Trees. Further, the study of fermentation process of milk is not reported till now in electrical aspect. This will give us insight to identify the various process involve in the fermentation process of milk. The quality and formation of dahi/yogurt/cheese is then controlled to obtain a high grade of milk producted. This will enhance the standard of curd/yoghurt/cheese formation from a new beginning. Also, it will help the user to identify the quality of milk product in packet product available in market. The product will be useful for dairy farmer to obtain a high quality of milk product at a relatively cheaper price. The device/system will help to determine the optimum time of curd/cheese/yoghurt formation from the milk. This will not only help in obtaining sour-less curd but also save their energy, time, and money. The proposed product may be used at every house-hold.