Development of intermediate moisture sapota slices by osmotic dehydration

Abstract

Sapota is one among the highly perishable fruit and hence marketing the fresh fruits to different places is quite very difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to convert the fresh produce into a value added product that can retain color, flavor and nutrients provided with extended shelf life. Various studies have indicated that pretreatment of fruits prior to osmotic dehydration improved the quality of the end product. Hence an attempt was made to study the effect of various pretreatments in the quality characteristics of osmo dried sapota fruits. The process for osmo drying of sapota involves washing, peeling, de-stoning and cutting into slices. The slices were then given two pretreatments viz., soaking the fruit slices in the solution of citric acid + sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid + sodium benzoate for 30 min. After pretreatment the fruit slices were soaked in the osmotic agent (sugar syrup) for 16 hrs followed by dehydration, cooling and packing. The dried fruit slices were packed in metalized polypropylene packs and subjected to shelf life studies for a period of 180 days. Analysis of the physicochemical qualities, microbial and sensory qualities of the fruit slices during storage, indicated that the osmo dried sapota samples pretreated with ascorbic acid had retained highly acceptable qualities.