Development of low calorie jam by replacement of sugar with natural sweetener stevia

Abstract

Recently, much attention has been focused on potential health benefits of low calorie foods. This research was conducted for the development of low calorie apple jam by using stevia as a sweetener. The jam samples were stored in pre-sterilized glass jars and were analyzed physico-chemically (moisture, ash, pH, acidity, TSS, total sugars and reducing sugars and ascorbic acid) and organoleptically (colour, taste, appearance, flavour, texture and overall acceptability) during 28 days of storage. Apple jam prepared with sucrose served as control (T1). During storage, a decrease was observed in moisture content (76.99 to 75.33%), ash content (2.01 to 1.36%), pH (3.52 to 3.28) and ascorbic acid content (6.96 to 6.85%) while an increase was recorded in TSS (22.00 to 25.00 °B), titratable acidity (0.49 to 0.66%), total sugars (15.06 to 18.28%) and reducing sugars (5.63 to 8.40%). Statistical analysis of jam samples revealed that storage intervals had a significant (p<0.05) influence on physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of low calorie apple jam (T2) prepared with stevia.