Development of appetizer (spiced squash) from mulberry (Morus alba L.) and its quality evaluation during storage

The present investigations were conducted to develop a commercial appetizer (spiced squash) from mul-berry and its quality evaluation during storage. Different combinations of juice (20, 25, 30, 35 and 40%) and TSS (40 and 45 oB) were tried to standardize proper combination for appetizer. Out of 10 different treatment combinations of juice and TSS tried, appetizer recipe (A5) prepared with 40% juice, 40 oB TSS and 1.30% acid was found to be best on the basis of sensory and some physico-chemical characteristics of the product. The appetizer prepared by follow-ing the best selected recipe was packed in glass and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and stored for six months under ambient (20-25 oC) and refrigerated temperature conditions (4-7 oC). Overall effect shows that various quality characteristics like TSS, apparent viscosity, reducing sugars, and total sugars of appetizer increased from 40.00 to 40.63, 185.08 to 193.75, 28.37 to 31.80, 37.12 to 38.53 and other chemical characteristics like acidity, ascorbic acid, anthocyanins, total phenols and sensory characteristics scores of colour, body, taste, aroma, overall acceptability score decreased from 1.30 to 1.21, 5.18 to 3.75, 8.60 to 5.75, 58.22 to 49.23, 8.15 to 7.52, 8.00 to 7.30, 8.20 to 7.26, 8.00 to 7.03, 8.10 to 7.15, respectively during storage. However, quality of the product was retained better in glass than PET bottles under refrigerated condition as compare to ambient storage condition.