Studies on storage stability of apricot and date incorporated rice based extruded snack

Abstract

Storage studies are an important parameter to analyse the quality characteristics and product behaviour during storage. A study was conducted at the Division of Food Science and Technology, SKUAST- K, Shalimar to investigate the effect of storage on quality characteristics of apricot + date incorporated rice based extruded product. The extrudate using broken rice flour + apricot powder: date powder in the proportion of 90:10 respectively was developed under optimized conditions of 15% moisture content, 450 rpm screw speed and 170oC barrel temperature and stored in high density polyethylene for three months at ambient temperature. Moisture content, water activity, free fatty acids, hardness, total plate count and sensory properties of extrudate were evaluated at an interval of one month for three months.