Original article Effect of high pressure processing on yield, quality and storage stability of peanut paneer Om Prakash Chauhan,* Sumeet Kumar, Roopa Nagraj, Ravi Narasimhamurthy & Pakalapati Sinivas Raju Defence Food Research Laboratory, Mysore 570011, India (Received 18 November 2014; Accepted in revised form 1 February 2015) Summary Paneer was prepared from peanuts by soaking the nuts for 8 h followed by removal of skin, grinding, extraction of milk and coagulation using calcium sulphate (1% solution). In another method the peanut milk was high pressure processed at 600 MPa for 5 min before coagulation. The obtained paneer samples were vacuum packed and kept at refrigerated temperature (6  1 °C) for storage and evaluated for physi- co-chemical, sensory and microbial attributes. High pressure processing of milk before coagulation resulted in increase in paneer yield significantly (P < 0.05) as well as maintained the quality of the paneer to a better extent as compared to control during refrigerated storage for a period of 45 days. Keywords High pressure processing, paneer, peanut, quality, shelf-life. Introduction Peanut is the major oilseed crop of India accounting for more than 55% of oilseed production (Jain et al., 2013). Peanut and its products are also well-known for their nutritional benefits for young and old people because of their richness in terms of protein, minerals, essential amino acids as well as essential fatty acids such as linoleic and oleic acids which are considered to be highly valuable for human nutrition. Though, India is the largest milk producer in the world, per capita availability is still poor. Therefore, there is a need to explore other sources to overcome this problem and to fight against malnutrition. Peanut as such can provide the solution as various milk and milk type products can be prepared from it. Some reports exist with regards to peanut milk (Jain et al., 2013) and peanut yoghurt (Isanga & Zhang, 2009). Paneer is a unique milk product generally made from milk. There are reports pertaining to preparation of paneer like prod- uct from other plant sources such as soybeans (Poysa & Woodrow, 2002; Noh et al., 2005). There are several factors which affect the yield and quality of paneer prepared from plant sources such as variety, maturity stage, processing methodology, coagulant, storage time etc. (Chang et al., 2011). High pressure processing is a novel non-thermal food processing technology used generally for preservation of foods in recent years. High pressure processing pre-treatments have also been widely used for other applications such as juice extraction, phyto-chemical extractions, pigment extraction, oil extraction, osmo- dehydration etc. High pressure has also been found to affect the physico-chemical and sensory properties of paneer (tofu) prepared from soy milk. Fuchigami et al. (2002) reported structural and sensory changes in frozen soy paneer prepared at 100–686 MPa pressures and found that the paneer prepared at 400 MPa showed better mouthfeel. Prestamo & Fontecha (2007) subjected soy paneer samples to a pressure in a range of 100–350 MPa at ambient temperature (22 °C) for 15 min and found that the tofu fat to be low in satu- rated fatty acids and high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Further, no significant changes on the profile fat pattern had been found after the high pressure treatment in the assayed conditions. Saowapark et al. (2008) studied rheological properties of high pressure and heat induced tofu gels and reported that such treatment may give rise to differing systems/structures, with new or modified organoleptic properties, the more ‘open’ structures obtained by pressure treatment may well cause processing difficulties if subsequent rework- ing or moulding is required. Reports also exist with regards to application of high pressure in cereals grains and legumes processing (Giron-Estrada et al., 2005). As such, there is a demand for alternative sources for milk and milk products in developing countries at cheaper costs and there is no report available in litera- ture with regards to the development of paneer type of *Correspondent: Fax: +91-821-2473468; e-mail: opchauhan@gmail.com International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2015 doi:10.1111/ijfs.12782 © 2015 Institute of Food Science and Technology 1