Abstract

Apple, guava and strawberry are important fruits extensively grown in Pakistan. Owing to their considerable nutritional significance, often marketed as "super-fruits". Due to inappropriate handling, transportation and processing 40-45% of the fruits are spoiled. These losses of the seasonal surplus of the fruits can be avoided by processing and preserving the fruit into different products like mixed jam, juice, nectar and jelly. Keeping in view the perishable nature of fruits, current study was designed with an objective to prepare different treatments of mixed jam having acceptable quality parameters as well as consumer acceptability. For this purpose, five treatments of jam were prepared at laboratory scale. After preliminary analysis of fruits, all the five treatments were analyzed for physico-chemical (pH, TSS, Titratable acidity, reducing sugars and non-reducing sugars), and sensory analysis for an interval of 7 days during 1 month storage period. The results of different treatments of jam showed a highly variable trend. pH, non-reducing sugars and all sensory parameters showed a decreasing trend during storage. Opposite is the case with acidity, total soluble solids, as well as reducing sugars. Sensory analysis indicated that the order of preference for jam treatments was T4>T3>T2>T0>T1>T5. Study suggests that losses in fresh fruits can be curtailed by processing it into mixed jam.