Effect of Type and Permeability Behaviour of Packaging Material on the Quality Characteristics of Dried Carrot Roundels during Storage

Carrot (Daucus carota L) is a carotenoids rich vegetable which is mainly consumed raw, converted to various products and cooked vegetable dishes. Present studies were carried out to study the changes observed in quality characteristics of dried carrot roundels during storage. Steam blanching and KMS dipping of carrot roundels followed by mechanical cabinet drying was found to be the best pretreatment for drying of carrot roundels as discussed earlier. These dried carrot roundels were further packed and stored under refrigerated (4-7°C) and ambient (11.6-26.2°C) storage conditions for 12 months. The dried carrot roundels packed in aluminium laminated pouches and stored under refrigerated conditions showed minimum increase in physico-chemical characteristics like moisture content (11.03%), water activity (0.310), pH (6.04), reducing sugars (21.00%), total sugars (35.36%) and retained highest amounts of titratable acidity (0.73%), carotenoids (29.40mg/100g), total phenols (87.50mg/100g), crude fibres (4.16%), rehydration ratio (7.81), antioxidant activity (52.68%) and SO2 content (174.75 ppm), respectively. The sensory characteristics scores like colour (8.05), texture (7.48), taste (6.88) and overall acceptability (7.54), respectively were also retained highest in the aluminium laminated pouch under refrigerated storage condition.