Vol. 10, Issue 9 (2021)

Author(s):
Sangeeta HK Panigrahi and Dipti Patel

Abstract:
Strawberry is one of the most important temperate fruit, belongs to the family Rosaceae. Strawberry plant is treasured in garden as well as in commercial field for its beautiful red fruit that has a tantalizing aroma. Strawberry is a small fruit having 98% edible portion. The mature fruits are quite delicious, refreshing, and attractive with distinct and pleasant aroma and healthy composition. It is widely consumed, both as fresh fruit and as an ingredient in processed products. Fruits are highly perishable, efficient post-harvest management has become an absolute necessity. The alternate way of extending their shelf life, availability in off-season and reduction of post-harvest losses is processing. These losses can be reduced by developing techniques for the preparation of different value-added products. A research trial was conducted at Horticulture Processing Laboratory in the Department of Fruit Science, IGKV, Raipur (C.G.) during the year 2019-20 and 2029-21 to standardize the recipe for strawberry crush and shelf-life studies of the processed product. The experiment was carried out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with 9 treatment combinations of 3 levels of pulp (20, 25 and 30% pulp) and 3 levels of TSS% (50, 55 and 60% TSS) with three replications. Result regarding organoleptic evaluation of strawberry crush revealed that recipe T₅ (25% Pulp + 55% TSS + 2% Acidity) recorded maximum score for all the sensory parameters, while the minimum was recorded in recipe T₁ (20% Pulp + 50% TSS + 2% Acidity). During entire storage period of strawberry crush, the minimum decrease in organoleptic scores and the maximum storability was found in the treatment or recipe T₅ (25% Pulp + 55% TSS + 2% Acidity) whereas, the maximum decrease in scores during storage and the minimum shelf-life was recorded under treatment T₁ (20% Pulp + 50% TSS + 2% Acidity).