Preservation of carrot paste and its feasibility in product development.

The present work focused on preparing carrot puree paste (CPP) and ready-to serve beverages (RTS) derived from carrot and evaluation of physicochemical, nutritional and sensory parameters of both during storage was done. Three formulations namely CPP-1 without hydrocolloid, CPP-2 with xanthan gum and CPP-3 with xanthan gum and sodium alginate were developed. RTS beverages were prepared from the respective CPP samples during each interval. These were analysed over 60 days for physicochemical parameters such as pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), electrical conductivity, water activity, moisture content, moisture-solid ratio, reducing sugar, invert sugar, turbidity, viscosity, and particle size distribution. Beta-carotene and vitamin A content were also evaluated for their nutritional values. The microbial quality was checked by standard plate count method and sensory evaluation carried out with a panel and taste profiling done by electronic tongue. ANOVA was done for the variability in values during storage.
Most of the physicochemical parameters; pH, TSS, titratable acidity, electrical conductivity displayed the slightest variations over the period of storage, suggesting a good stability of product. Moisture content decreased gradually while solids increased and thus moisture-solid ratio also displayed changes. Reducing and invert sugars changed with varying tendency owing to the processes of hydrolysis and change of carbohydrate over the storage period. -carotene and vitamin A content declined with storage showing they are liable to changes during the storage period. The particle size distribution of CPP remained fairly stable while there existed varied fractions of particles in RTS sample. The microbial enumeration study confirmed non detectable growth over the period of storage.
All the RTS samples were sensorially found acceptable to good quality and formulation played role for these differences. Electronic tongue analysis revealed that the hydrocolloids showed great effect on the perception of tastes where CPP-3 and RTS-3 showed more strong tastes while CPP-1 and RTS-1 showed milder and balanced tastes. Overall, the prepared carrot based CPP and RTS products showed good physicochemical stability, quality nutrition, and microbial safety during storage period and hydrocolloids were found to influence the texturally and taste qualities.