Canning of Peach-halves in Fruit Juice

Abstract

Lye peeled peach halves of <i>July Elberta </i>canned in <span style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic">A2½<i> </i>size tin cans in a covering medium of 40°B in different proportions (10-40 per cent, peach pulp and enzymatically extracted peach juice with or without ascorbic acid at 500 ppm) were evaluated for Storability, nutritional value and sensory attributes. Cut-out analysis of canned fruits after 6 mo revealed that all the treatments met FPO specifications for drained weight and showed improvement over the conventional canned peaches. As expected the vitamin C fortified treatments retained higher amounts of ascorbic acid. Addition of pulp or juice in covering media prevented the non-enzymatic browning to a greater extent. Rased on the sensory evaluation the addition of juice or pulp in covering syrup significantly improved the sugar/acid blend of the canned halves. Treatment containing 40 per cent peach pulp was rated as the best treatment followed by 30 per cent peach pulp in a covering medium of 40°B on the basis of physico-chemical, sensory and microbiological evaluation. The additional advantage of canning of fruits in natural fruit juice or pulp occurred due to the use of covering syrup in the preparation of the ready-to-serve-beverage (RTS) of 15°B prepared from the leftover covering medium containing 40 percent peach pulp and was rated best on the basis of sensory quality. Overall it can be concluded that sucrose syrup being used in canning of peach halves at present can success fully be replaced with the covering medium containing 30-40 per cent of peach pulp. Addition of pulp or juice not only improve the quality of canned product but, enhance its nutrition along with the economic utilization of the left over covering media in the form of RTS beverage.

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