visit to SDS Instruments Stall

SDS Instruments have put up a stall at 48^th Dairy Industry Conference, Jaipur at Birla Auditorium from 20^th Feb. to  22^nd Feb. 2020. They have invited the faculty members and students of Department of Home Science, IIS (Deemed to be UNIVERSITY), Jaipur to visit the stall and see the functioning of the instruments like Texture Analyzer, water Activity meter and Head Space analyzer.

On 22^nd Feb. 2020, one of the faculty member ad 3 research scholars of the Department of Home Science went to visit the stall and have observed the functioning of all the instruments displayed at the stall.

First of all, after reaching the stall, we have seen the functioning of Texture Analyzer. It is used to quantify sensory evaluations like Freshness, spreadability, tenderness, springiness, gumminess, hardness, firmness, consistency, fracturability etc. of variety of food products like bread, biscuits, jams, jellies, chocolate, cereals, dough, Ready-to-eat Extruded foods like kurkure, chips etc. We have seen the fracturability of kurkure, gooday biscuits, spreadability of dough. With the use of Texture Analyzer the results can be obtained in just 15-20 minutes.

Later, we have seen the functioning of water Activity meter, this instrument is used to measure the water Activity of dairy, milk and other products like bread, biscuits etc. The instrument employs chilled mirror dew point technology for water activity analysis. This instrument is software supported. We get the results in few minutes.

Lastly, We have seen how the Head Space analyzer analyses the concentration of modified atmospheric gases in the headspace of flexile and rigid packages such as foil sachets, cans, bottles,  packets of extruded products like lays, bingo, kurkure, puffcorn etc. We have served how it works to measure the headspace of lays packet.

The instruments were of utility as our students develop new products both as part of their dissertation work and research work, so it would be of use to them. Moreover it was easy to use and give results in few minutes but very expensive the cost of texture analyser was 16 lakhs, water activity meter was 9 lakhs and headspace analyzer was more expensive. 

Overall the visit was fruitful and we have learned the functioning also.