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New Ventures of Value-Addition in Jaggery
Processing for a Dynamic Sugar Industry
Narendra Mohan, Anushka Agarwal
National Sugar Institute
Kanpur, India
Abstract— Traditionally India has been a hub for producing
jaggery which is also known as “Gur”, “Gula”, “Panela”, II. JAGGERY PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION
“Rapadura”, “Raspadura” in various countries and has been SCENARIO IN INDIA
termed as “Non-centrifuged dehydrated sugarcane juice” by
India during the last couple of years has produced more
Codex Alimentarius. In-spite of jaggery scoring many points
over the other sweeteners, the sector has remained hugely than 300 MMT of sugarcane out of which, about 79.91 % is
unorganized and the potential has not been harnessed to the utilized in producing white sugar, 11.29% in producing
extent possible. It offers enormous possibilities of technological jaggery and khandsari, 8.80 % as cane juice, seed cane for the
up-gradation, product innovation and value addition. The paper next harvest etc. Sugar recovery for different states in India
discusses many such options available for adoption so as to lies in the range of 8.89 to 11.26% on cane (MY 2018-19),
provide superior quality jaggery with enhanced shelf life. whereas, recovery of jaggery (gur) ranges from 10 – 13%
depending upon the variety of sugarcane, sugarcane quality,
Keywords— Jaggery, value-addition, innovation, panela soil texture, irrigation facilities, time of cane crushing etc.,
[2]. Still by and large jaggery is produced in a conventional
I. INTRODUCTION manner carrying out boiling in bels heated by naked fire and
under rather unhygienic conditions. The quality and also the
Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy accounting
keeping quality is always wanting. Hence, the untapped
for about 18% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and
potential of this jaggery sector should be given a food for
also supporting livelihood of more than 50% of the country’s
thought towards value addition and innovation. Out of the
workforce. Among the major agro-processing industries in
total world production, more than 70% jaggery is produced in
India such as dairy, meat & poultry, food grains etc.,
India [3]. Jaggery, an unrefined, natural, non-centrifuged
sweeteners are known to be the oldest, one of the largest and
sugar is produced using natural clarificants of vegetable
most valued industry. India has now become the largest
origin and at times use of objectionable chemicals are also
producer and consumer of sugar with its production reaching
made in order to produce better quality jaggery. Looking to
up to 33 MMT for marketing year (MY) 2018-19. Uttar
its present nutritional status and mind-set of people for
Pradesh & Maharashtra are the major sugar producing states
natural products, jaggery has immense growth potential
and as far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned, it is said to be the
market both in national & international market due to its high
largest state in sugarcane production in the country. Uttar
nutritional & medicinal value.
Pradesh alone contributes to 42-44% of the country’s total
It is pertinent to mention that being the lead producer of
sugarcane production and also occupies the top of the list in
jaggery, India is said to be the leading traders & exporters of
being the largest sugar producing state with around 107.19 Lk
jaggery to the world. Around 3,13,826.00 MT of jaggery
ton during the marketing year (MY) 2018-19.
worth Rs. 606.8 crores/230.03 million USD is reported to be
Sugar and jaggery (also known as ‘gur’) are known as the exported by India in the year 2018-19. According to a report
most valued, traditional sweetening agent primarily obtained provided by ISMA & GAIN report for the marketing year
from sugarcane. Nearly 70% of the global production of (MY) 2018, the average production of jaggery is expected to
jaggery is done in India and this sector supports huge rural reach to 6.6 MMT [4].
economic system providing employment to millions of people Jaggery is known as a healthier sweetener and a good
[1]. The never ending demand of high quality, green & clean replacer of sugar and other artificial sweeteners in many
labelled, organic, nutritious food products amongst the diet applications. It is also known as ‘medicinal sugar’ rich in
conscious people has influenced the food processing sector to vitamins and minerals, finding its use in Ayurvedic medicine
innovate and add value to the existing product line with a view as a blood purifier and also used for curing infections [3][5].
to provide health and wellness to its consumers. Being the Traditionally jaggery is used in sweets and savory food
major agro-processing industry in the rural sector, there is a products, now-a-days with the advancement in processing,
greater need to uplift the jaggery processing sector which storage & packaging technologies of jaggery, it may be used
would thus provide higher value jaggery and jaggery based as sweetening agent in manufacturing various beverages, as
products at reasonable cost and would in turn help the rural base material for various syrups. Jaggery may also find its
economic system to prosper. application in confectionery products such as hard boiled
sweets, biscuits, breads, pastries etc., besides using jaggery
for direct consumption [6]. Apart from India, jaggery has
seen its application in many other parts if the world. For
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instance, the world jaggery consumption could be divided white sugar [9] [10]. The iron content in jaggery that is
into four distinct market [7]. carried along during its processing in iron vessels helps
1. The largest market constitutes the rural, small town and preventing anaemia. Trace amount of mineral salts i.e.
large city rural population. The main jaggery producing 2.8g/100g present in jaggery as compared to that of sugar
countries, principally India, Colombia, Pakistan, China, which contains only 300mg/kg, helps strengthening the
Brazil, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Philippines. Colombia has nervous system of the body and also helps take care of the
the largest yearly per capita consumption of jaggery with blood vessels. To further add to the list, jaggery is said to be
around 10 Kg for 2009, followed by Myanmar with around 7 an excellent cleansing agent. Hence, people working in
Kg/year/capita. India’s yearly per capita consumption is less industries like wooden, textile, woollen industries are advised
than 4.0 Kg/year/capita. The consumption of jaggery of the to incorporate jaggery in their daily life regime. This will
other listed countries lies in the range of 2-4 Kg/year/capita. prevent them from cough, cold & congestion and therefore
2. The second largest market for jaggery is its application for helps them maintain the quality of life [9] [11].
the production of alcoholic beverages and in other Jaggery being highly rich in important minerals like
fermentation industries, both in the producing countries and Calcium- 40-100 mg, Magnesium-70-90 mg, Potassium-1056
also for export markets. One of the greatest examples are rum mg, Phosphorus-20-90 mg, Sodium-19-30 mg, Iron-10-13
worldwide, “Shochu” in Japan and “Cachaza” in Brazil. mg, Manganese-0.2-0.5 mg, Zinc-0.2- 0.4 mg, Copper-0.1-
3. The third market is the household consumption by middle 0.9 mg, and Chloride-5.3 mg per 100 g of jaggery), vitamins
and high income consumers, both in jaggery producing (viz., Vitamin A-3.8 mg, Vitamin B1-0.01 mg, Vitamin B2-
countries and export markets. This market is growing, mainly 0.06 mg, Vitamin B5-0.01 mg, Vitamin B6-0.01 mg, Vitamin
because of organic jaggery in export markets (International C-7.00 mg, Vitamin D2-6.50 mg, Vitamin E-111.30 mg,
Sugar Organization 2013). Vitamin PP-7.00 mg), and protein-280 mg per 100 g of
4. Finally, a small, still incipient, market of jaggery is its use jaggery, may prove to be beneficial source of food in order to
as a food industry. Main industries using jaggery as an mitigate problems of malnutrition and could also be used to
ingredient are the beverage, confectionery, bakeries and provide instant care to the victims of natural calamities as a
sauces industries. result of its various health benefits. Also micronutrients
The development of the jaggery world consumption present in jaggery such as Zn, Ca, P may help providing
depends then on increasing its competitiveness as a sweetener people healthy life along with other benefits such as acting as
and ingredient vis-à-vis its competitors, that is, in the direct a blood purifier and curing jaundice and other bile disorders
household markets, the food-ingredient markets and in other [12].
industrial markets. This competitiveness will be accessed by Such promising and attractive benefits of this great
the diversity and convenience of its presentations, its safety product jaggery should attract various stake holders of the
and quality, and cost. sugar sector to exploit the potential of this product to the
fullest for a better quality of life to their consumers and a
III. NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND IMPORTANCE OF better market status for themselves.
JAGGERY
With the passage of time, due importance is being given to IV. EXPLORATION OF NEW AVENUES IN JAGGERY
the quality of food product available in the Indian market. PROCESSING
Awareness among the consumers is increasing, food safety With the advent of modernization and introduction of new
laws are becoming more stringent. As per recent Food Safety technologies while quality of sugar has improved to a greater
& Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives extend in order to cater to the sector specific requirements of
Amendment Regulations, 2017), a good quality ‘cane the market, jaggery production is still confined to small scale
jaggery’ or ‘cane gur’ must confer to the following analytical cottage industry usually for local consumption, using
standards as given in table 1 [8]. traditional technologies necessitating measures to be taken
Table 1: Quality standards for ‘cane jaggery’ or ‘cane gur’ on dry weight for quality improvement [13]. With the passage of time
basis although the jaggery industry has witnessed growth in many
folds, but sadly there isn’t any significant improvement in its
Sr. No. Characteristics Permissible performance, technical efficiency and recovery. Few reasons
limit as to why old technologies are still in practice for jaggery
1. Moisture, percent by weight, Max 7.0
manufacturing are:
2. Sucrose, percent by weight, Min 70.0
3. Total Sugars expressed as invert sugar, Min 90.0 (a) Lack of government policy support
4. Reducing sugars, percent by weight, Max 20.0 (b) Dis-organized micro and small scale sector
5. Sulphate ash, percent by weight, Max 4.0 (c) Lack of will & financial constrains to adopt new
6. Ash insoluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, 0.5 technologies
percent by weight, Max
(d) Poor education of craftsmen involved in jaggery
7. Extraneous matter & water insoluble matter, 1.5
percent by weight, Max processing
There are several jaggery units which are on the verge of
Jaggery is known as a natural, high calorie traditional closure as a result of traditional technologies, low market
sweetener, which contains minerals, proteins, glucose and price for jaggery in comparison to Fair Remunerative Price
fructose that are naturally present in the sugarcane crop as a (FRP) /State Adviced Price (SAP) for sugarcane. The figure 1
result of which it is considered to be healthier as compared to shows a graph which gives an idea that with the passage of
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time, on one hand, sugarcane utilization for production of (1) Sugarcane juice was normally filtered through a
white sugar has increased from 33.47% (1980-81) to 79.91% muslin cloth to remove dirt and dust impurities.
(2017-18) while that for gur (i.e. jaggery) and khandsari has (2) Lime was added to sugarcane juice at the time of
decreased from 54.73% (1980-81) to 11.29% (2017-18). boiling, which enhanced the scum formation and
Figure 2 shows that while the per capita consumption of thereby facilitated clarification process.
sugar increased from 7.3 kg per annum (1980-81) to 19.3 kg (3) Sugarcane juice was centrifuged @ 4000 rpm for 10
per annum (2017-18), for jaggery (gur) and khandsari, the per min
capita consumption decreased from 12.5 kg per annum (4) Sugarcane juice was clarified using micro-filters.
(1980-81) to 4.1 kg per annum (2017-18) [14].
The studies concluded that liquid jaggery processed using
membrane filtration during the juice clarification process,
consisting of multi-channel ceramic membrane of pore size
0.2 µ resulted in superior quality of the final product and
therefore the process can be commercialized by the use of
micro-filters for clarification of sugarcane juice for better
quality of liquid jaggery or even the solid one [15].
Another research study elaborated on the upgradation of
process technology for jaggery making. The study throws
light on the facts that since the traditional jaggery
manufacturing plants were designed by local artisans without
proper design consideration as a result of which large portion
of energy is wasted thereby reducing the thermal efficiency
of the plant. This problem was overcome by the use of two-
pan; three or four-pan could be used so as to consume
Fig 1: Percentage of sugarcane production utilised for production of white maximum thermal energy of the hot flue gasses. Several
sugar, Gur & khandsari research is being carried out to enhance the performance of
jaggery plant. The research study includes the use of juice
pre-heaters, energy boosters, economizers, heat pump based
freeze concentration system of sugarcane juice etc. Among
all the above mentioned suggestions, the use of multiple pan
plant with heat pump based freeze concentration system of
sugarcane juice seems to be a promising approach for
efficient jaggery production [16].
Yet in another research study, several innovation towards
value-addition with jaggery are carried out. The research
shows that with the use of materials like anola pulp, whey,
cashew, almonds, cocoa powder, wheat powder etc., the
quality of jaggery could be increased. The studies suggest
that a good quality jaggery could be prepared from
neutralized paneer whey and it is said that whey jaggery
contains more proteins as compared to pure sugarcane
Fig 2: Per capita consumption of sugar, Gur & khandsari jaggery. Addition of wheat flour in jaggery would help in
increasing the protein content and texture of jaggery.
Apart from technological and policy barriers, obstacles Addition of anola increases vitamin C content of jaggery and
such as unawareness amongst both food industry personnel’s thus gives rise to a much more value-added product [1].
and common public concerning the health benefits associated
with jaggery prevents this sector to flourish. As mentioned B. Shelf life enhancement of jaggery
earlier, more that 70% of jaggery is produced in India, the
Storage and quality maintenance of jaggery is a big
time is not far when this jaggery sector may create a huge
problem. Traditionally, jaggery was stored in earthen pots or
revolution better than sugar.
wooden boxes or metal drums which could not sustain the
A. Technological advancements in jaggery processing quality of jaggery for a longer period of time. PET film,
Jaggery is mostly available in large moulds and also as edible film coating, drying cum storage bins, low temperature
cube, powdered/granulated jaggery. Among all the forms of storage, PET with 100% nitrogen are some examples of
jaggery, liquid jaggery is attracting the minds of packaging materials and techniques that can be used for
manufacturers and consumers. Studies show the production enhancing the keeping quality of jaggery [1].
of liquid jaggery by means of different clarification methods Literature shows that storing jaggery in drying cum
was adopted. In the study, 4 different treatments for storage bin coated with a layer of whey is an effective way
sugarcane juice clarification was adopted: for extending the shelf life of jaggery [17]. Green house
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drying of jaggery before storing it is also an effective way to Agro-Industries Division, Agricultural and Consumer Protection
Department (AG) database,
increase the life of jaggery at a fairly lower cost [1].
Rome.
Another study was conducted for assessing the storage of [6] https://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/
jaggery under low temperatures. Different storage period was [7] Jaffé and Walter, “Non centrifugal cane sugar (NCS) (panela,
adopted at low temperature (7-9℃) for assessing the shelf life jaggery, gur, muscovado) process technology and the need of its
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[8] Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Food Safety and Standards
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during storage were accessed using edible coating. The study
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jaggery and retained its properties up to 4 months of storage. jaggery from sugarcane (Sacharum officinarum L.) juice,”
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[16] K. Rakesh and K. Mahesh, “Upgradation of jaggery production and
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Therefore, jaggery, one of the natural products of sugar
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and packaging of jaggery and jaggery based products with the
use of modern technology is a direction the industry may
work so as to have assured market for their products and a
stable consumer base for such value-added products.
V. CONCLUSION
Sugarcane based industry plays a vital role in
strengthening the agricultural sector. Manufacturing of high
quality, value-added jaggery with a sense of hygienic
processing & packaging would help in providing an excellent
integrated development of the sugar industry and would also
help in transforming the rural economy into a dynamic and
buoyant industrialized economy. Initiatives like the ones
mentioned in the paper would help the industry to venture
into a new market thereby creating job opportunities to a
major class of group and would also give the market and its
customers a quality product.
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