Development of Tropical Fruit Leather and Quality Evaluation during Storage at Ambient Conditions

Abstract

Tropical fruits are commonly seasonal in nature and, drying of such fruits into leather during they are in peak in their availability help in the utilization of the fruits. A study was conducted to evaluate the storage stability of the fruit leather made from tropical fruit pulps of mango (Mangifera indica), pineapple (Ananas comosus), banana (Musa acuminata), papaya (Carica papaya) and passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) with various levels of added sugars. During the mixed fruit leather development, the tropical fruits were mixed in the same proportion while different sugar levels (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%) were used as treatments. Further, the study was carried out in order to assess the physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory qualities of prepared leathers packed in low density polyethylene (300 gauge) and stored at ambient temperature of 30 ± 1°C and RH of 75-80%. The results revealed that the moisture content and Total Soluble Solids (TSS) of freshly made fruit leathers ranged from 21 to 24 % and 54.1 to 58.8 °Brix, respectively. The physico-chemical properties of the stored tropical fruit leather exhibited no significant differences (p>0.05) for pH but was significant (p<0.05) for moisture content and TSS during the storage period. The microbiological studies of products showed that the leathers are safe for human consumption following storage. The sensory analysis of stored mixed fruit leather indicated that all the treatments were ranked high for colour, aroma, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability than the control treatment The treatment which had 20% of added sugar performed the highest mean score for aroma (4.7), taste (4.8), mouth feel (4.7) and overall acceptability (4.8) except for colour on a 5-point hedonic scale based on Friedman test This study revealed that the tropical fruit leather made with 20% of sugar is superior in analyzed quality characteristics and this product could be stable for consumption up to 4 months of storage under ambient conditions without any significant changes in quality.