Development and Quality Evaluation of Thermally Processed Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L.)

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.