Evaluation of pumpkin-rowanberry marmalade quality after different drying times

Historically, marmalades may have originated as an early effort to preserve fruit for consumption in the off-season. Marmalades are basically products with fruit puree and sugar–acid–pectin gel. The aim of the current research was to determine the chemical and physical properties and to investigate the degree of acceptance of pumpkin – rowanberry marmalade. The experiments were carried out at the Faculty of Food Technology of the Latvia University of Agriculture. The marmalade was made from Cucurbita maxima pumpkin and sweet rowanberry Sorbus aucuparia cultivar ‘Nevezhinskaya’ pur e es. D ifferent drying times in oven at a temperature of 50 ± 2 °C were examined and compared with marmalade drying in air ambiance at room temperature. The moisture, total carotene, ascorbic acid content, hardness, colour, and the degree of acceptance of marmalade samples were determined as quality evaluation. The results of the research have shown a large variability in the physical and chemical parameters among the marmalades after different drying times. The moisture content of marmalade samples decreased by 9.1 to 33.5 %, and hardness increased from 1.85 to 9.54 N. According to sensory evaluation, consumers liked pumpkin–rowanberry marmalade samples after drying in the air ambiance at room temperature. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ct.62.4.3412