Application of Intermediate Moisture Foods Technology to Confectioneries

Improvement of the Quality of Crystallized Fruits

Abstract

Intermediate moisture foods (I.M.F.) are made their shelf life longer by means of controlling water activity (Aw), pH and/or adding preservatives. Crystallized fruits that are used for confectioneries are required to have juicy and soft texture. However, the more they get juicy, the more they get molded because of their higher moisture content. In this work, improvement of the quality of crystallized fruit was attempted by controlling Aw with various composition of sugar that is main component of crystallized fruit. Aw value of the crystallized fruit markedly decreased when small molecular such as glucose or inverted sugar is used on boiling process of the fruit. Using of inverted sugar in place of glucose resulted in better product quality. The mold that grew on the crystallized fruit was identified as a kind of Penicillium sp., whose minimum Aw of growth was 0.799. The product whose Aw value was lower than 0.799 was obtained by using 50% of inverted sugar and 50% of sucrose for boiling syrup. I.M.F. technology was successfully applied to crystallized fruit, and the standard value of Aw was obtained which was in the range of 0.570-0.789 for guaranteeing the good quality and long shelf life.