Development and preservation of a ready-to-eat cumin based appetizer with natural ingredients

Abstract

358-362Spices such as ginger, pepper, cumin, chillies and many others are known for their stimulating effect and are used as active ingredients in appetizers formulations. A ready-to-eat (RTE) appetizer in the form of a chewy munch i.e. jeera munch has been developed by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The experimental design with active ingredients as variables and quality parameters such as acidity, acceptability score as the responses was used. Among the ingredients, raisins were pre-processed by frying in stable fat and cumin seeds were pulverized to a fine powder prior to the main processing. The optimized composition of ingredients was processed by concentration and dehydration. The product had the proximate composition of fat, 7.83; protein, 8.82 and carbohydrates 70.7%, respectively supplying about 77.7 Kcals per munch. The munches packed in metalized polyester pouches had a shelf-life of 9 months at 28±5°C as well as 37°C storage