Formulation and Senso-chemical Evaluation of Palmyrah Palm (Borassus flabellifer L.) Based Value-added Products

Abstract

Palmyrah palm (Borassus flabellifer L.), a member of the Arecaceae family, is a tree with a variety of uses, including food, beverage, fiber, medicinal, and timber. Unfortunately, commercial applications for the nutritionally rich pulp of ripened palm are limited. The current study was conducted to develop a technology for the preparation of a value-added products from palm and to evaluate them in terms of chemical composition, sensory properties, and microbial quality during refrigerated storage. This study resulted in the creation of a palm toffee product with optimal levels of ingredients such as palm pulp, sugar, fat, cream, glucose, and skimmed milk powder. Three palm-based toffees were selected based on the analysis and they were compared with a control sample. The results of the physicochemical analysis revealed that fresh toffees had an average moisture content of 9.79%, ash content of 3.5-6.15%, fat content of 8.20-29.70g, titrable acidity of 0.27-0.49%, total sugars of 78.26-79.66%, reducing sugar of 46.12-49.90%, and ascorbic acid content of 5.330-3.553 mg/100g, ß–Carotene of 20-133 mg/100g. Na, Mg, K, Ca, Zn, and Fe were identified as abundant minerals in prepared toffees. On a 9-point hedonic scale, the mean color, taste, flavor, texture and overall acceptability score for selected three toffees were 6.9-7.8, 6.6-8.4, 7.0-8.1, 7.1-8.0, and 7.2-8.4, respectively. According to the storage study, reducing sugars and total sugars increased with the increase in storage period, while moisture content, ascorbic acid, and total acidity decreased. The toffee is a contribution to the value-added food product development from a traditional fruit in Bangladesh.