Milk is one of the most nutritious foods. It is rich in high quality protein providing all ten essential amino acids. Milk is not only a food, but also an essential ingredient of life itself by its very indispensable nature. It is highly nutritious commodity. It supplies body building proteins; bone forming minerals and health-giving vitamins and furnishes the energy giving lactose and milk fat. Since we are lacking in cold chain facilities, therefore there is imperative need to develop shelf stable milk products. The snacks available in the market are mainly prepared from starch rich foods and cereal grains especially potato and corn and they have low nutrient density and high calorie and/or fat content. The present study was undertaken to develop a good quality and highly acceptable shelf stable ready to-cook milk-based snack, which can be stored for longer period under ambient temperature. In preliminary trials, a wide variety of starchy flours, alone or in various combinations and different levels of skim milk coagulum were tried for preparing milk-based snacks to reach most acceptable combination. Based on the results of preliminary trials, formulation containing 55% of skim milk coagulum along with different combinations of flours was selected as control for further studies. Incorporation levels of two different extenders were separately optimized. The treatments containing optimum level of extenders and control (without extender) were evaluated for different physico-chemical characteristics along with yield, expansion percentage and percentage oil uptake etc. All sensory parameters were recorded between good to very good. Aerobically packaged milk-based snacks stored at 30 ± 2°C showed no marked changes in sensory, physico-chemical and microbiological qualities during storage up to 60 days. TBARS and pH values increased however, percentage oil uptake and expansion percentage were reduced during storage period. Thus, it can be concluded that technology developed for making shelf stable ready to-cook milk-based snack using skim milk coagulum can provide a nutritious, palatable product to the consumers and ensure effective utilization of skim milk.

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