39C-14

A. K. MACHA, F.P.Division, Defence Food Research Laboratory, Siddartha Nagar, Mysore, 570011 and K. S. Premavalli, Project Co-ordinator & Head, F.P.Division.

Instant foods offer a great deal of convenience to the consumer because of the reduced time and ease of preparation as well as the availability at all times.

The objectives of the study were to develop the instant foods based on green gram-flaked rice and spice blends and investigate the effect of spices and spice oleoresins on the product quality during storage.

Two types of spice blends were prepared from various spices after establishing the spice ingredient composition. Along with other spice ingredients, Type-I included cinnamon & cloves powder and Type-II included cinnamon & cloves oleoresin.

The processing methodology for the instant foods has been standardized. The instant food mixes were prepared by admixing the preprocessed, dehydrated green gram, peas, potato slices, flaked rice and spice blends (type-I and type-II separately) following the established processing methodology. These mixes were packed in paper-aluminium foil-polyethylene pouches and stored at 0-5°C and 37°C. The instant foods were studied for the quality changes and acceptability during the storage period.

The results of the study showed that the instant foods remained stable for 6 months at both 0-5°C and 37°C. The organoleptic evaluation of the products revealed a high acceptability with a score of 6.7 to 7.2 on a 9-point hedonic scale. However, the food mix with spice oleoresin showed a higher acceptability. The sensory scores exhibited a better linear relationship of overall acceptability with color & taste in samples without oleoresin and aroma & texture with oleoresin. The variations among the panelists, sensory parameters differ significantly at 0.1% level in samples with oleoresin and at 5% level in samples without oleoresin.

The study indicates that instant foods based on green gram-rice and spice blend with cinnamon & cloves oleoresin have better stability and could have a high acceptability in the consumer market.