Effect of different pre-treatments on quality of carrot roundels

Abstract

Carrot (Daucus carota L.) a root vegetable which is mainly consumed raw, converted to various products and cooked vegetable dish. Present studies were carried out to study quality characteristics of fresh carrot during the season for selection of best month for procurement of carrot and effect of different pretreatments on quality of carrot. As no work is carried out earlier to standardize the blanching time for this form of carrot i.e. roundels and effect of blanching time on quality of dried roundels. So steam blanching as pre-treatment for 3 minutes was found best to inhibit peroxidase activity of roundels. Further roundels were pretreated with additives like sulfur fumigation and KMS dipping treatments in different concentrations. On the basis of higher sensory characteristics like colour, texture, taste and overall acceptability. A pre-treatment comprising of steam blanching followed by 2000 ppm KMS dip for 60 minutes was found best for carrot roundels.