Introduction :-
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for nutritious and convenient ready-to-eat cereal products. Among the various grains available, jowar (sorghum) stands out as a valuable crop due to its gluten-free nature, high fiber content, and rich nutritional profile. Despite its health benefits, jowar remains underutilized in processed food segments. To promote the consumption and market potential of jowar, efforts are being made to convert it into value-added products such as flakes, which can serve as a healthy alternative to conventional breakfast cereals. The present study focuses on conducting trials of jowar flakes using the Multigrain Flaker Machine for the client Agrozee Solutions Millets Now Pvt. Ltd.
The aim is to optimize processing parameters such as grain conditioning, roller pressure, and moisture content to achieve uniform, crisp, and high quality jowar flakes suitable for commercial applications.
Objectives :-
1. To study the flaking behavior of jowar grains on the Multigrain Flaker Machine.
2. To determine the optimum pre-treatment and processing parameters such as moisture level, steaming time, and roller gap for producing quality flakes.
3. To evaluate the final product characteristics including texture, expansion, thickness and overall quality of jowar flakes.
4. To smoothness and texture of the flaked sorghum still need improvement. This can be improved by improving the quality of gelatinization during the steaming process and by further modifying the SOP.
Methodology :-
Taking reference from the previous trials conducted by fellow researcher Yashwant Sir the study was initiated with similar processing parameters.
The first trial began by conditioning the cleaned jowar grains to achieve 25% moisture content, which was considered suitable for initial flaking tests and the flake machine and the gap between rollers was adjusted between 0.05 and 0.1 mm.
TRIAL 1 :- JOWAR SOAKING PROCESS AND ITS RESULT
For the initial trial, 100 g of raw jowar grains were taken as the base sample. The grains were soaked in water for 6 hours to achieve proper hydration.
The weight of Soaking jowar is following
| TIME | JOWAR WEIGHT AFTER SOAKING |
| 12:45 | 280 |
| 1:45 | 298 |
| 2:45 | 300 |
| 3:45 | 304 |
| 4:45 | 306 |
DISCUSSION AND FURTHER PLAN
Based on the result of the first trial, it was observed that sorghum has soaking in the water is 6 hours but the most water absorb in jowar is 1st 2 hours and then decided next batch trial jowar soaking time is only 2 hours is sufficient
TRIAL 2 :- JOWAR FLAKING PROCESS AND RESULT WITH 25% MOISTURE
BATCH 1–
For the initial trial, 100 g of raw jowar grains were taken as the base sample. The grains were soaked in water for 2 hours to achieve proper hydration, followed by steaming 95°C for 20 minutes to soften the endosperm and make the grains suitable for flaking.
After steaming, the sample weight increased to 230 g due to moisture absorption. The steamed grains were then dried at 55 °C for 25 minutes, resulting in a final pre-flaking weight of 120 g, with an approximate moisture content of 25%.
The conditioned sample was passed through the Multigrain Flaker Machine to observe flaking performance and product yield. The results are summarized below:
REASULT AND ANALYSIS
The flakes are not good because the flakes machine in the gap between the rollers is more than 1mm then its reduce to 0.5mm
BATCH 2-
Soaked 100gm of sorghum for 2 hours the weight of sorghum after soaking was 140gm . removed the water and kept it for 10 min in at plate. then steaming at 95 °C for 20 min
