Abstract:
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) is an important nutritious tropical
fruit of India. Its availability is seasonal and could not be stored as such for longer
periods under ambient or refrigerated conditions which results in its wastage.
Therefore, to increase the shelf life of jackfruit, an investigation has been taken up
to develop and standardise a process protocol, which could contribute to jackfruit
based industries. ‘Varikka’ variety of tender jackfruit was used for the study. A
hot water blancher was fabricated and blanching time was standardised (one
minute) based on enzyme inactivation, colour and texture. Standardisation of
thermal
processes
viz.
pasteurisation
and
sterilisation
time-temperature
combination for different F and F 0 values respectively were performed and
pasteurisation temperature of 90 o C for 19 minutes and a sterilisation temperature
of 121 o C for 38 minutes were found to be optimum based on lethality, texture and
colour. After optimal blanching, the samples were canned with prior addition of
preservatives like brine, citric acid and KMS using the optimized thermal process
time-temperature. Storage study and quality evaluation in terms of TSS, titrable
acidity, pH, vitamin C, crude fibre, texture and colour were done. The samples
preserved in KMS or citric acid exhibited good property in most cases of quality
evaluation. Apart from quality evaluation, microbial and sensory analyses were
done at every 15 days interval. The cost of operation per can for tender jackfruit
was calculated as ` 25/-. The study concluded that the samples which were
blanched for one minute at 100 o C and pasteurised at 90 o C for F value 10 were
found to be superior. The optimised treatment resulted in a product which
resembled the fresh sample, available to the consumers in a ready to cook form
throughout the year.
