Formulation and standardization of palm fruit incorporated products

Palmyra palm tree belongs to the ‘Palme’ family. It is a tall and swaying tree well known as ‘Borassus flabellifer’. The word Borassus was derived from a Greek word and it means the leathery covering of the fruit and flabellifer means fan bearer. Palm fruits were collected from Ramanathapuram district. The fruits were washed with tap water and then allowed to ripen for 2-3 days if necessary. The products like squash and juice were prepared using fruit powder at 1g, 2g and 3g level of incorporation. Each ingredient was weighed using a weighing scale before preparation. Portion size, duration of preparation was noted in each case. The sensory evaluation was carried out by a panel of twenty members using five point hedonic rating scales. Iron content of the raw palm fruit was high about 24mg whereas in boiled and roasted palm fruit it was 10mg and 9.5mg respectively. Fiber content of raw palm fruit was high about 4.8g when compared to boiled palm fruit (1g) and roasted palm fruit (1.5g). In general it is seen that dietary fibre content is modified by different methods of processing. The microbial load of raw, boiled and roasted palm fruit squash and juice for different storage periods indicates that on the first day bacteria, fungi and yeast were absent. On the final day bacteria were present in juice. Hence the shelf life of palm squash was less than 15days. Cake incorporated with 1g of palm fruit powder revealed that low amount of carbohydrate was present in boiled palm fruit cake. Protein content is high in roasted palm cake.