Physico-Chemical and Microbiological Characteristics of Gundpak – A Traditional Milk Product of Nepal

Gundpak, is a popular khoa based traditional milk product of Nepal and commonly used as a sweet. Twelve market samples of Gundpak were collected from the different areas of Kathmandu valley. The physico-chemical, sensory and microbiological analyses of the samples were investigated. The commercial samples were not consistent in their chemical compositions. The moisture, fat, protein, carbohydrates and ash were varied from 10.1 to 21.2, 10.6 to 16.5, 16.8 to 30.3, 29.0 to 54.8, 2.4 to 3.7 percentages, respectively. The microbiological analysis showed that Total Plate Count, Yeast and Mold, and Coliform were varied from 0 to 5 × 104, 0 to 8.0 × 103, 0-1.1 × 102, whereas there was no growth of Staphylococci. The hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, springiness, chewiness and adhesiveness values were varied from 31.7 to 245.3 N, 90.03 to 296.3, 7.84 to 22.06 N, 2.36 to 7.62, 1.45 to 16.2 N.mm, and 0.3 to 6.8 mNm, respectively, among the samples. In the commercial samples, colour parameter, L*values was varied from 17.12 to 42.08, indicating wide variations in appearance from light to dark brown. The overall sensory quality did not show significant variations. The minerals, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, zinc and copper were in the ranges from 390.7-527.15, 25.56-40.43, 188.86-215.93, 282.0-378, 0.41-0.52, 1.31-2.58 and 0.11-0.16 mg/100 g sample, respectively. These results indicated that Nepalese Gundpak significantly vary in physico-chemical characteristics and hence require optimization of product ingredients and processing technology to get uniform high quality.