Vol. 10, Issue 8 (2021)

Author(s):
Harshini Bandaru and Manish Bakshi

Abstract:
Fruits are the important part of our diet. Consuming fruits everyday helps in boosting the immunity levels and maintains good health. The only drawback of the fruits is that presence of high moisture content which easily makes the fruits vulnerable to microbial spoilage. And so processing them to different value added products is the best way to reduce post harvest losses. Fruit leather is an example of a processed product that appeals to individuals of all ages. Apple and guava leather (70:30) standardized in the study of Harshini and Bakshi, 2021 was used in this study. The mixture was dried using a variety of methods, including sun drying, hot air oven drying (70 °C), microwave oven drying (180W), and tray drying (50 °C), until the moisture content reached 12-20%. Drying plays a prominent role in the leather preparation. Drying reduces the product's water activity, reduces enzymatic and microbiological activity, and minimizes physical and chemical interactions during the storage term. Moisture content, TSS, pH, Titratable acidity, and Vitamin C, as well as sensory characteristics of leather dried under various drying methods were analyzed. Microwave oven and Hot air oven dried samples has shortest duration of drying and resulted in less moisture content, high TSS, less degradation of vitamin C and titratable acidity than tray drying and sun drying. Among all the drying methods the leather dried by tray dying was best accepted by the panelists based on its quality.