ABSTRACT
Flatbreads like chapatti are traditionally prepared fresh at the time of consumption in several Indian households. In modern times, people in larger towns and cities do not have the time, skill and inclination to prepare flatbreads daily. This necessitates their preservation and storage to maintain not only microbial quality but also the texture and overall acceptability. Modern society needs flatbreads like chapatti to be available as ready-to-cook (RTC) and ready-to-eat (RTE) items on supermarket shelves. Several researchers are working in this direction. This chapter explains and compares the preservation of chapatti/flatbread as RTC flatbread dough, par baked flatbread and RTE fully baked flatbread. Scientific literature on more recent approaches in flatbread preservation such as freezing and retort processing is presented followed by a discussion on the scope of using newer approaches like modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), active packaging and hurdle technology. There are several constraints that are yet to be overcome in prolonging shelf life of RTC and RTE flatbreads.
