Studies on the effects of honey incorporation on quality and shelf life of aonla preserve

Abstract

Aonla is the richest sources of Vitamin C. The raw fruit, due to its high acidic nature and astringent taste is unacceptable to the consumers. Honey is a natural high energy sweetener with many medicinal values. Keeping in view the nutritional and therapeutic values of aonla fruit and honey, aonla preserve was prepared by incorporating 7.5 and 15% of honey into them. The quality of the products was evaluated based on the physicochemical (moisture, ash, pH, TSS, browning index and Vitamin C content), it was observed that the physicochemical characteristics of the aonla preserve improved upon incorporation of honey. There was improved retention of moisture content, increased ash content, reduced browning and reduced loss of Vitamin C due to incorporation of honey. The Vitamin C content in the aonla preserve (15% honey incorporation) was 133.56 mg/100 g at the end of storage. The aonla preserve sample incorporated with 15% honey was nutritionally better as compared to samples incorporated with 7.5% honey due to its better Vitamin C retention, higher mineral content, tenderness and tangy taste. The yeast and the mould detected were few to count in the control sample. Shelf life of the product was 90 days.

Keywords:

• medicinal use
• astringent taste
• nutritional and therapeutic values
• browning index

Public Interest Statement

Aonla is one of the oldest Indian fruits and is considered as “Wonder fruit for health”. The raw fruit due to its high acidic value and astringent taste is unacceptable to consumers. The aonla preserve was prepared by incorporating honey as sweetener along with sugar, a natural energy and medicinal values. With the view of the commercial viability and marketability of product, 7.5 and 15% of honey were incorporated. The study was based on important parameters of product like pH, TSS, moisture and Vitamin C. It was found that the physicochemical properties of aonla were improved by honey incorporation.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Saghir Ahmad

Saghir Ahmad, presently working as a faculty member in the Department of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University. He has his BTech and MTech degrees in Food Technology and Engineering. His research area is Meat Preservation and Processing. He has completed his PhD degree in the same area. He has been associated with Adhoc Research Projects funded by ICAR, Delhi, between 1999 and 2008. He is a member of several Scientific Societies. Presently, he is a team leader in one of the projects of AICRP on Post Harvest Technology. The project is on utilization of by-products of meat industry. He has published 37 research papers in the Journals of National and international repute.

Nanda Kumaran

Nanda Kumaran is a M Tech student in Food Processing engineering at Aligarh Muslim University.