Development and quality evaluation of honey based carrot candy

Nutritional Interventions and Considerations for the Development of Low Calorie or Sugar Free Foods

Diabetes is a globally prevalent chronic metabolic disease characterized by blood glucose levels higher than the normal levels. Sugar, a common constituent of diet, is also a major factor often responsible for elevating the glucose level in diabetic patients. However, diabetic patients are more prone to eat sweets amongst the human population. Therefore, we find a popular consumption of zero or low-calorie sweeteners, both natural and artificial. But, the uses of these sweeteners have proved to be controversial. Thus, the purpose of this review was to critically analyze and highlight the considerations needed for the development of sugar-free or low-calorie products for diabetic patients. For this purpose, various measures are taken such as avoiding sugary foods, using natural nectar, artificial sweeteners, etc. It cannot be ignored that many health hazards are associated with the overconsumption of artificial sweeteners only. These sweeteners are high-risk compounds and a properly balanced consideration needs to be given while making a diet plan for diabetic patients.

Development of eggless gluten-free rice muffins utilizing black carrot dietary fibre concentrate and xanthan gum

Gluten-free muffins are generally made from purified flours and starches (from non-gluten sources) which are deficient in dietary fibre and have poor quality attributes. In this regard, the present work was undertaken to explore application of black carrot pomace dietary fibre concentrate (BCF) and xanthan gum (XG) in gluten-free rice muffins. Physicochemical properties of BCF and rice flour were studied. BCF was incorporated at three levels (3, 6 and 9 %) in rice flour, while XG was added at 0.5 % level to study their effect on muffin batters and physicochemical properties of muffins. BCF showed higher water absorption and oil absorption capacities than rice flour. Incorporation of BCF and XG increased flour paste viscosities and batter viscoelasticity. Incorporation of BCF increased total dietary fibre content (TDF) and decreased the L* and b* values, water activity (aw), specific volume and firmness. On the other hand, XG improved appearance and specific volume of the rice muffins prepared with and without BCF. Muffins prepared with 6 % BCF incorporation and XG were the most acceptable. This study demonstrated that BCF and XG can be used as viable functional ingredients in the preparation of gluten-free muffins.

Osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables: a review

The main cause of perishability of fruits and vegetables are their high water content. To increase the shelf life of these fruits and vegetables many methods or combination of methods had been tried. Osmotic dehydration is one of the best and suitable method to increase the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. This process is preferred over others due to their vitamin and minerals, color, flavor and taste retention property. In this review different methods, treatments, optimization and effects of osmotic dehydration have been reviewed. Studied showed that combination of different osmotic agents were more effective than sucrose alone due to combination of properties of solutes. During the experiments it was found that optimum osmosis was found at approximately 40 °C, 40 °B of osmotic agent and in near about 132 min. Pretreatments also leads to increase the osmotic process in fruits and vegetables. Mass transfer kinetics study is an important parameter to study osmosis. Solids diffusivity were found in wide range (5.09-32.77 kl/mol) studied by Fick's laws of diffusion. These values vary depending upon types of fruits and vegetables and osmotic agents.

Process optimization for the manufacture of angoori petha

Angoori petha (AP) is delicacy which is relished by large section of Indian population. Fully ripened ash gourd fruits were osmotically dehydrated at different lime water concentration, lime water treatment time and sugar concentration for the manufacture of AP. The response variables consisted of sensory parameter for flavour, body and texture, colour and appearance and overall acceptability and physico-chemical properties. A central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used as experimental design to predict the optimum conditions for manufacture of petha. The interaction of lime water concentration and lime water treatment time had significant (P < 0.05) effect for flavour, body and texture, colour and appearance and overall acceptability score (OAA) score in AP. The colour and appearance score had declining trend with increase the lime water treatment time and lime water concentration. Reducing sugar varied from 1.0% to 2.0%. The mean values for total invert sugar, sucrose and total sugar were in the range of 31.6-68.3%, 30.6-66.9% and 31.6-68.4%, respectively in different runs of AP samples. The optimum osmotic diffusion treatment consisted of lime water concentration of 12.6%, lime water treatment time of 54.1 min and sugar concentration of 87.9% for maximum acceptability in AP.