Quality of mango bar stored in three types of packaging materials.
Sunita Singh, Kulkarni S. D., Sreedevi K. S.
Author Affiliation: Agro-processing Division, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal - 462 038, India.
Journal of Food Science and Technology (Mysore) 40 : 84-88
Abstract : Mango arrival hits high in the market from May to July every year. Mangoes are handled, packaged and transported usually under the hot conditions. It is necessary to divert or process the excess fruit that is over-ripened for valuable products. Suitable methods for preparing products from mango that can have good storage qualities are necessary. Mango bar was prepared with two different sugar concentrations: 30 and 65%. This was followed by a heating step as in traditional methods. However, results showed that even if heating was avoided, the pulp soaked in sugar then dried was of good quality. Soaking pulp overnight in 65% sugar was a good prerequisite as it had significantly lowered microbial load and had a high preservation index quality, if wrapped in polyethylene/wax paper or aluminium foil for storage. The market grade mango bar (stored for 2 months) was also tested. It contained heavy loads of Enterobacters and a spoilage indicator bacteria was isolated for further studies. The traditional products need to have good processing steps for good quality and shelf life. It is always important to have less microbial contaminations in a product, which is often overlooked in traditionally processed items.