Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Banana (cv. Musa - AAA group) is one of the most widely utilised fruits in the tropical and subtropical region. This study evaluates the acceptance on addition of banana pulp and osmo dehydrated bits as a natural value-added flavour in ice cream. For the standardisation of banana incorporated ice creams, the banana variety “Grand naine” was utilised in the study and was added in the form of pulp (T1 - T6) and osmodehydrated bits (T7 - T12) to the ice cream at varying concentrations 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 per cent level. Plain ice cream without the addition of pulp or bits (T0 ) served as control. For the preparation of ice cream, all the ingredients along with stabilisers, were mixed and pasteurised at 85ºC for 1 min. This mix was allowed to cool to which pasteurised cream was added and then homogenised. The homogenised mix was kept for ripening at 4^°C for 24 hours, after which the banana pulp/banana bits were added in various concentrations and the ice cream was hardened in freezer. All the treatments underwent organoleptic evaluation and the results showed that the treatment T1 (5% banana pulp) and treatment T7 (5% banana bits) were the best combinations with a total mean score of 8.59 and 8.53 respectively. The overall acceptability of banana pulp-based ice cream and banana bits incorporated ice creams were 8.71 and 8.77 by the third month of storage respectively on nine-point hedonic scale. The proximate analysis of selected ice creams showed moisture (59.63% and 59.79%), protein (4.08% and 3.91%), fat (4.39% and 3.99) acidity (0.16%) for both the ice creams, pH (6.55 and 6.54) and TSS (40.21^ºB and 40.37^ºB). The production cost of prepared banana pulp and banana bits incorporated ice creams were Rs. 45.00/ 100g and Rs. 56/ 100g respectively. Hence, the study showed that banana are highly suitable for preparing ice cream and could be judiciously utilised as a healthy dessert.