Title of Invention

"A PROCESS FOR PREPARATION OF FRUIT BAR FROM TROPICAL/SUBTROPICAL/TEMPERATE FRUITS"

Abstract

A process for preparation of fruit bar from tropical/subtropical/temperate fruits, which comprises extraction of fruit pulp by conventional methods, subjecting the fruit pulp to enzymatic treatment using at-least 0.05% pectolytic enzyme such as herein described, at a temperature in the range of 30 to 50°C for a period of 1 to 4 hours, filtering the resultant mass conventionally to obtain clarified fruit juice, heating at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90°C, adding to the so obtained heated juice 0.5 to 3 percent pectin, 5 to 30 percent sugar, and 0.5 to 8 percent of other additives such as maktodextrin, soluble starch, refined wheat flour, or mixture thereof at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90°C to obtain a slurry, adding 250 to 2000 PPM antibrowning agent such as sulfur dioxide, ascorbic acid to the said slurry, followed by spreading, drying at 40 to 70°C , to get the desired fruit bar.

Full Text

This invention relates to a process for preparation of fruit bar from tropical subtropical/ temperate fruits. This invention particularly relates to a process for preparation of novel fruit bars of superior textural and other sensory quality attributes with storage stability from any tropical / subtropical / temperate fruits. Fruit bars also called as fruit leather or fruit slabs are confectionery products prepared from fruit pulps like, mango, guava, banana, papaya etc., Mango fruit bar is the most commercially successful traditional product because of its unique flavour, colour and textural characteristics. The traditional method of preparation of mango bar, also known as tandra involves extraction of pulp, mixing with jaggery in the ratio of 1:2 to 1:4, and sun drying the material on bamboo mats adding layer by layer after the previous one is dried. These slabs of sundried product are cut in to slices of uniform sizes, wrapped in cellophane paper and marketed. Reference may be made to Rameswar,A. 1979. Indian Food Packer, Mar-Apr. Efforts to improve the traditional process with respect to preparation of pulp and mechanization of drying to improve the sensory and microbiological quality of bars from diverse fruits such as banana, guava and papaya have led to the development of commercially viable process for mango bar only. In our Indian Patent No.49441,dated 23rd April, 1953, we have discribed and claimed a process with improvements in the preparation of fruit pulps for the manufacture of fruit bars. However fruit bars prepared from guava, banana and some other fruits do not have the desired textural properties and the bars tend to become hard during storage. Reference may be made to Mathur etal, 1972. (Mathur,V.K., Anthony das,S., Jayaraman,K.S. and Bhatia,B.S. Indian Food Packer, Mar-Apr, 1972) where in fruit bars were prepared from a combination of any two fruits such as mango, pineapple, papaya, guava, banana and jamun. The brix/total soluble solids was raised to 30°B, pectin , gum arabic and liquid glucose were added to the fruit pulp with 1.5% pectin content, and pH was adjusted to 4.2. after addition of 0,1% potassium metabisulphite, dehydration of the pulp was effected in a cross flow drier at 65-80 °C to a moisture content of 12-16%. How ever among the bars manufactured employing this process, mango was best while among the combinations mango - pineapple and jamun-banana were considered quite good with respect to flavour, texture, and storage stability. Reference may be made to Anon 1973, Compressed foods. Food Processing, 34(1) F4-F7 where in preparation of fruit bars has also been reported by the process of compression. The fruit bar variations from combinations of figs, dates, plums, cherries, almonds, coconuts, oranges, sesame, raisins and macaroons. Fruits were dehydrated to 8% MC and compressed to yield fruit bars as non reversible products. In this method moisture is very critical and if the moisture is less than 7% it resulted in bars with very hard texture and difficult to chew. There is no prior knowledge on the manufacture of fruit bars from thin and clarified fruit juices. Fruit bars prepared from some of the fruits like guava and banana become hard during storage unlike mango bar due to inherent variations in the composition of fruit pulps with respect to soluble to insoluble solids ratio, and composition of solids with in each group. These differences especially in the crude fiber content and other insolubles (pectin etc.,) of the pulp lead to the marked differences in sensory attributes especially the textural characteristics and storage stability of the bars prepared by the earlier processes. Among the fruit bars made from the whole pulps of fruits such as mango, banana and guava, only mango bar is commercially successful due to its acceptable textural characteristics. Variations in composition of mango and guava pulps is shown in Table 1. TABLE 1. VARIATIONS IN CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MANGO AND GUAVA PULPS. (Table Removed) The fruit bars made from banana and guava pulps were not successful commercially due to the hard texture right at the time of manufacture of the bars , storage stability is poor, becoming still harder during storage. The fruit bars hitherto prepared directly form fruit pulps with the exception of mango do not yield a commercially viable satisfactory product. The question of flavour compatibility arises when using mixed fruit pulps thus limiting the choice to a selective few fruits. Therefore there is a strong need for an improved process to manufacture fruit bars with desirable textural characteristics from a wide variety of tropical, subtropical and temperate fruits such as banana, guava, grapes, orange, lime, pineapple, sapota etc., irrespective of their pulp content. Further, fruit bars not only provide exotically flavoured tasty natural confectionery products but also supplement the nutrients, Vitamins, minerals and sugars. Some of these fruits contain besides vitamins and minerals, phenolic compounds which not only impact attractive colour, but also posses good thereaupetic value. Therefore, there is a strong need to develop an improved process that enables to manufacture fruit bar from any type of fruit. The main object of the present invention is to provide a process for preparation of fruit bar / fruit leather / fruit slabs from tropical / subtropical / temperate fruits, which obviates the drawbacks of the hitherto known processes. Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for the preparation of fruit bars and like products having improved textural, sensory, storage attributes. Yet another object is to provide a process for the preparation of fruit bars and like products from thin and clarified juices having low or no pulp / body from any type of fruit,, Accordingly, the present invention provides, a process for preparation of fruit bar from tropical/subtropical/temperate fruits, which comprises extraction of fruit pulp by conventional methods, subjecting the fruit pulp to enzymatic treatment using atleast 0.05% pectolytic enzyme such as herein described,at a temperature in the range of 30 to 50°C for a period of 1 to 4 hours, filtering the resultant mass conventionally to obtain clarified fruit juice, heating at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90°C, adding to the so obtained heated juice 0.5 to 3 percent pectin, 5 to 30 percent sugar, and 0.5 to 8 percent of other additives such as maltodextrin, soluble starch, refined wheat flour, or mixture thereof at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90°C to obtain a slurry, adding 250 to 2000 PPM antibrowning agent such as slufur dioxide, ascorbic acid to the said slurry, followed by spreading, drying at 40 to 70°C. In an embodiment of the present invention the fruit used for extraction of fruit pulp may be from tropical, subtropical and temperate fruits and a combination thereof. In an another embodiment of present invention the enzymatic treatment may be effected by using pectolytic enzymes such as pectinase, pecin esterase and po ly galacturonase In yet other embodiment of the present invention the antibrowning agents used may be such as sulfur dioxide, and ascorbic acid. In still another embodiment of the present invention the drying may be effected by using hot air drier. In an embodiment of the present invention fruit pulp from any ripe fruits, having characteristic full flavour such as guava, grape, pineapple, banana, jamun (Syzygium cumini L) etc., was extracted after washing, peeling, and extracted in a pulper fitted with 1/32" stainless steel sieve. To the pulp thus obtained pectolytic enzyme (0.05%) was added and incubated at 40°C for two and half hours. The enzyme treated pulp was filtered to obtain clarified fruit juice. The compositional variations of different fruit juices used for the preparation of fuit bars is given in Table .2. TABLE . 2 . COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT FRUITS USED IN PREPARATION FRUIT BAR (Table Removed) In another embodiment of the present invention the juice is pasteurized at 80°C and added with pectin (150 G), maltodextrin, soluble starch, refined wheat flour and sugar. These additives are dissolved in a small quantity of juice and made in to a slurry prior to adding to clarified juice. The clarified juice is heated to 80 °C and the slurry is added with continuous stirring, then 500 ppm SO2 and 200-lOOOppm ascorbic acid is added, spread on stainless steel trays (7.2g/ square inch), smeared with glycerol. These trays are kept in a hot air drier at 60 °C and dried to a final moisture content of 14-15%. The dried bars are cut in to 1 X 2.5 inch size pieces and dusted with powdered cane sugar (sucrose), put in to pouches of appropriate flexible packaging material based on sorption studies and sealed. The fruit bars thus prepared are highly acceptable with desirable textural storage quality characteristics(Table .3) TABLE .3.QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF FRUIT BAR FROM CONVENTIONAL AND IMPROVED PROCESS (Table Removed) Mean± SD *Means with same superscript are not significantly different at p 0.01.The samples were assessed by a trained panel on a 10 point scale with 10 for excellant and 1 for very poor. Samples receiving overall quality scores of 7 or above were considered acceptable and those receiving below 7 were considered unacceptable. The following examples are given by way of illustration and should not be construed to limit the scope of the invention EXAMPLE-1 GUAVA FRUIT BAR: Guava pulp was extracted from mature, ripe guavas We Claim: 1. A process for preparation of fruit bar from tropical/subtropical/temperate fruits, which comprises extraction of fruit pulp by conventional methods , subjecting the fruit pulp to enzymatic treatment using at least 0.05% pectolytic enzyme such as herein described , at a temperature in the range of 30 to 50 ° C for a period of 1 to 4 hours , filtering the resultant mass conventionally to obtain clarified fruit juice , heating at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90 ° C , adding to the so obtained heated juice 0 .5 to 3 percent pectin , 5 to 30 percent sugar , and 0.5 to 8 percent of other additives such as maltodextrin, soluble starch , refined wheat flour , or mixture thereof at a temperature in the range of 70 to 90 C to obtain a slurry adding 250 to 2000 PPM anti browning agent such as sulfur dioxide , ascorbic acid to the said slurry , followed by spreading , drying at 40 to 70 ° C to get the desired fruit bar. 2. A process as claimed in claim 1 wherein the pectolytic enzyme is selected from pectinase , pectin esterase and pectin polygalacturonase . 3. A process for preparation of fruit bar from tropical/ subtropical/temperate fruits substantially as herein described with reference to the examples .

Documents:

2157-del-1998-abstract.pdf

2157-del-1998-claims.pdf

2157-del-1998-complete specification (granted).pdf

2157-del-1998-correspondence-others.pdf

2157-del-1998-correspondence-po.pdf

2157-del-1998-description (complete).pdf

2157-del-1998-form-1.pdf

2157-del-1998-form-2.pdf

2157-del-1998-form-3.pdf