ICAR JRF Dairy Technology Syllabus 2026 — Code 17 Unit-wise Topics
Complete ICAR JRF Dairy Technology syllabus 2026 — Code 17 unit-wise topics for milk processing, dairy products, HACCP, equipment, plant layout, pumps, refrigeration, and dairy engineering fundamentals.
ICAR JRF Dairy Technology Syllabus 2026 — Code 17
Major Subject Group: Dairy Technology
Sub-Subjects: 17.1 Dairy Technology · 17.2 Dairy Engineering
This is the complete syllabus page for ICAR JRF Dairy Technology (Code 17). Code 17 is the technical production-and-engineering paper of the dairy stream, combining fluid milk processing, dairy product manufacture, packaging, plant operations, equipment standards, pumps, refrigeration, and core engineering fundamentals.
Exam Snapshot
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Subject Code | 17 — Dairy Technology |
| Subject Group | Major Subject Group: Dairy Technology |
| Total Questions | 120 MCQs |
| Duration | 2 Hours |
| Marking Scheme | +4 per correct answer |
| Negative Marking | −1/3 per wrong answer |
| Question Type | Multiple Choice (Single correct) |
| Medium | English |
Latest Official Notification Details
| Parameter | 2026-27 Official Detail |
|---|---|
| Notice Date | 08 May 2026 |
| Application Window | 08 May 2026 to 07 June 2026 (up to 5:00 PM) |
| Fee Payment Deadline | 07 June 2026 (up to 11:50 PM) |
| Correction Window | 09 June to 10 June 2026 |
| Exam Date | 04 July 2026 (Saturday) |
| Mode | Computer Based Test (CBT) |
| Pattern | Objective type MCQs |
| Medium | English only |
| Duration | 02 hours (120 minutes) |
| Test Cities | Around 122 cities across India |
| Source | NTA 2026 Public Notice PDF · ICAR Syllabus PDF |
What Is Officially Fixed For Code 17
- Code 17 is the official major subject group for Dairy Technology in AICE JRF/SRF (Ph.D.).
- The paper is conducted in English only, in CBT mode, for 120 minutes.
- The official syllabus publicly combines dairy processing technology with dairy engineering fundamentals.
- NTA publishes the exam schedule, mode, and pattern, but it does not publish official unit-wise weightage for Dairy Technology.
- The “best to revise first” and “high-yield” parts below are therefore student guidance, not an official marks blueprint.
Processing and Engineering Map
Unit-I: Dairy Processing Technology
This unit covers the manufacturing and process-control side of the subject.
- Principles and processes of food preservation
- Non-conventional sources in dairy context
- Processing of fluid milk
- Computerization and automatic process controls in milk processing
- HACCP concepts in fluid milk processing
- Advances in centrifugal separation and bactofugation
- Manufacture of various dairy products
- Changes occurring during manufacture and storage
- Product defects
- Sensory evaluation and judging of milk and milk products
- Types of packaging materials and their properties
- Packing forms and packaging operations
- Problems in food packaging
- Recent advances in packaging of dairy and food products
- Intelligent food packaging
- Nutritional labeling of food products
- Application of membrane processing in milk processing
Unit-II: Dairy Equipment and Plant Systems
- Materials and sanitary features of dairy equipment
- Homogenizer:
- theory of homogenization
- triplex pump
- lubrication
- care and management
- homogenizer accessories
- standards for homogenizer
- Pasteurizer:
- pasteurizer construction
- principle
- materials used in construction
- HTST pasteurizer
- care of pasteurizer
- Reaction kinetics
- Sterilizer
- Mixing and agitation equipment
- Principles of evaporation and drying
- Atmospheric concentration
- Vacuum pan
- Fluidization
- Care of vacuum pan
- Atmospheric drum dryer
- Spray dryer
- Principles of dairy plant layout and design
- Functional design
- Space requirement of milk plant
- Data processing orientation in plant management
Unit-III: Dairy Engineering Fundamentals
- Fluid mechanics and properties of fluids
- Bernoulli’s equation and its applications
- Hydraulic systems
- Types of pumps
- Sanitary pumps
- Standards for centrifugal and positive rotary pumps
- Selection of pumps
- Care and upkeep of pumps
- Dimensional analysis
- Refrigeration and air-conditioning
- Artificial refrigeration
- Compression refrigeration system
- Refrigeration accessories
- Calculation of refrigeration machine requirement
- Heat transfer and thermodynamics
- Mechanical separations
- Rittinger’s and Kick’s laws
- Engineering mechanics
- Theory of machine
- Strength of materials
- Hooke’s law
- Materials of fabrication
- Machine tools
- Electrical engineering basics
- Electromagnetic induction
- Magnetic hysteresis loop (BH curve)
- AC fundamentals
Exam-Focused High-Yield Areas
| Area | Why it matters in Code 17 prep |
|---|---|
| Fluid milk processing line | One of the most natural sources of process-sequence MCQs |
| Homogenizer and pasteurizer | High-frequency equipment topics with principle, parts, and care-based questions |
| Centrifugal separation, bactofugation, membrane processing | Repeatedly tested because they connect theory with modern dairy operations |
| Packaging and labeling | Small but scoring zone, especially when paired with product handling and quality assurance |
| Plant layout and sanitary design | Easy for objective questions because terms are specific and technical |
| Pumps and Bernoulli-based engineering basics | Strong numericals/concept MCQ area for engineering-heavy paper setters |
| Refrigeration and air conditioning | Very important in milk chilling, storage, and plant utility questions |
| Drying and evaporation equipment | Spray dryer, vacuum pan, and drum dryer create classic technology questions |
Quick Reference: What To Revise First
| Area | What to revise first |
|---|---|
| Processing Technology | Preservation principles, fluid milk line, HACCP, centrifugal separation, membrane processing |
| Product Manufacture | Product changes during manufacture and storage, defects, judging and sensory evaluation |
| Packaging | Packaging materials, operations, problems, labeling, intelligent packaging |
| Core Equipment | Homogenizer, pasteurizer, evaporator, spray dryer, agitation systems |
| Engineering Basics | Bernoulli, pumps, refrigeration, heat transfer, dimensional analysis |
| Plant Design | Sanitary features, layout, functional design, space requirement |
Best Books for ICAR JRF Dairy Technology
This list keeps the same book-to-syllabus mapping format used across the JRF subject pages.
| Book | Best use in the syllabus |
|---|---|
| Outlines of Dairy Technology — Sukumar De | Best base coverage for Code 17 |
| Technology of Indian Milk Products — R. P. Aneja, B. N. Mathur, R. C. Chandan & A. Banerjee | Best for product manufacture and Indian dairy products |
| Dairy Plant Engineering and Management — Tufail Ahmad | Best for equipment, layout, and plant engineering |
| Introduction to Food Engineering — R. Paul Singh & Dennis R. Heldman | Best for utilities, thermodynamics, and process engineering |
| Food Packaging: Principles and Practice — Gordon L. Robertson | Best for packaging and shelf-life basics |
| Minimal rank-oriented plan | Outlines of Dairy Technology — Sukumar De, Dairy Plant Engineering and Management — Tufail Ahmad, and Technology of Indian Milk Products — Aneja, Mathur, Chandan & Banerjee + PYQs |
How To Prepare The General Agriculture Layer Efficiently With AgriDots
For plant- and agriculture-heavy JRF groups, the common agriculture base is explicit in the official syllabus itself. That is clear in groups such as Agronomy, Soil Science, Horticulture, Entomology, Plant Science, Plant Biotechnology, Social Sciences, and Water Science & Technology. In the animal, dairy, fisheries, food, engineering, forestry, community-science, and statistics groups, the same layer still improves scores because objective papers reward candidates who can quickly eliminate options using basic knowledge of crops, soils, schemes, extension, economics, statistics, and current agriculture.
So the practical rule is simple: do not prepare your subject in isolation. Keep one common-agriculture revision layer active throughout your JRF preparation.
Shared Books For The Common Agriculture Layer
| Book | Best use in common JRF preparation |
|---|---|
| Fundamentals of Agriculture, Vol. 1 & 2 — Arun Katyayan | Best base book for crop production, soils, nutrient deficiency, plant biology, genetics, pests, diseases, and agriculture basics |
| A Competitive Book of Agriculture — Nem Raj Sunda | Best for objective revision once the basic theory is already clear |
| Objective Agriculture for JRF Exam — S. R. Kantwa | Useful for MCQ drilling, recall speed, and mixed-agriculture practice |
| General Agriculture for ICAR Examinations — Muniraj Singh Rathore | Good backup book for one-line revision and broad competitive coverage |
Why AgriDots Is More Efficient Than Reading Books Alone
| Use AgriDots for | Why it is faster than books alone |
|---|---|
| Shared Agriculture Course | It compresses the overlapping JRF base into linked notes across agronomy, soil science, horticulture, genetics, pathology, entomology, economics, extension, animal husbandry, fisheries, ecology, and agricultural statistics instead of forcing you to extract overlap manually from multiple standard books |
| Topic-Wise Agriculture Practice Tests | You can revise chapter by chapter immediately after reading instead of waiting until one full book is complete |
| Agriculture Test Series | Mixed-subject Revision Warrior quizzes train recall across subjects, which is closer to how objective papers actually feel |
| Agriculture Current Affairs Hub | Books do not stay current on MSP, schemes, production reports, fertilizer policy, dairy/fisheries updates, or digital-agriculture changes |
Efficient JRF Workflow With AgriDots
- Read one main subject book for your core discipline and keep the rest of the books as support, not as parallel first reads.
- Use /courses/agriculture to finish the overlapping general-agriculture layer faster than building notes from multiple books.
- After each topic, solve topic-wise quizzes so weak areas become visible immediately.
- Use Revision Warrior mixed tests to train switching between crop, soil, genetics, economics, extension, and current-affairs questions.
- Use agriculture-current-affairs every week so your static preparation stays updated with schemes, policy, production, and report-based questions.
Why this works better than books alone: standard books build depth, but they are slow, repetitive across subjects, and weak on current agriculture. AgriDots is better for speed, revision order, topic linking, and exam-style recall, while books remain your depth source.
Preparation Strategy
- First learn the fluid milk processing line in the correct order because many other topics attach to that flow.
- Then revise equipment in paired form: machine principle + sanitary feature + care + output defect.
- Keep engineering formulas and concepts in a separate short notebook for Bernoulli, pumps, refrigeration, heat transfer, and laws like Rittinger and Kick.
- Use the final revision cycle for packaging, HACCP, labeling, and plant layout, because these are fast-scoring but often neglected.
- Practice PYQs by identifying whether a question is about process step, machine, utility, or engineering principle before solving it.
Lesson Doubts
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