Preparation and assessment of physico-chemical and sensory qualities of pumpkin tomato vegetable squash

摘要

In the present world, a trend towards development and consumption of fruits and vegetables based beverages has gained attention among people to ensure their healthy life. Focusing this concept as objective, a study was conducted to develop composite vegetable squash by incorporating fundamental properties (nutritional and organoleptic properties) and functional properties (medicinal properties) of two major vegetables cultivated in Sri Lanka; tomato and pumpkin. Taking into account the decisions of several preliminary studies, five formulations with different combinations of tomato and pumpkin were prepared and analyzed for physico-chemical parameters inclusive of TSS, pH, titrable acidity, ascorbic acid content, total sugar, reducing and non-reducing sugar content and organoleptic parameters such as colour, aroma, taste, nature, and overall acceptability. Repercussions of chemical analysis declared that with the decrease in concentration of pumpkin in composite veggi squash formulations mean values for pH (6.3-4.8), total sugar (31.3-25.8), reducing sugar (7.8 -6.2) and non-reducing sugar (23.4-19.6) significantly decreased while mean values for titrable acidity (0.1-0.4) and ascorbic acid (270.2-310.4) increased at 5% significant level. In addition, scores for sensorial attributes were significantly different among composite veggi squash formulations, in which formulation T4 prepared with 50% pumpkin and 50% tomato scored high for all the sensorial attributes in sensory evaluation. With the findings derived from experimental analysis of freshly made composite pumpkin tomato vegetable squash, formulation T4 was considered as superior squash formulation in terms of physico-chemical and sensorial properties squash formulation for further storage and nutritional improvement studies.