Abstract
The study aims to create a small home appliance for making ragi balls, a nutritious traditional staple food from finger millet known for its calcium, fiber, and nutraceutical properties. The machine aimed to produce ragi ball each 60 to 70 gm per ball totaling 3 kg/hr., using convenience Ragi flour aiming to reduce the drudgery for a chef. Optimization involved crucial parameters like water-to-flour ratio, time, and temperature. A portable electric open steaming facility facilitated for steaming and Texture Profile Analysis (TPA) provided insights using a Texture Analyzer under specified conditions an optimal core temperature of 80 °C was identified. Comparing steaming durations, 10 min yielded lower stiffness, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and fracture force than 8 min. Color analysis showed no significant difference in samples steamed for 8 or 10 min compared to the control, yet hot water in kneading (at 70 °C) followed by 10 min of steaming altered lightness, redness, and yellow color values. Designing kneading vanes to endure 200 N shear force and exert 6 N centripetal force on the ball, using SolidWorks software for modeling and analysis. This study highlights the creation of a specialized machine to enhance ragi ball production efficiency through thorough parameter analysis for quality improvement.