effects of blanching, osmotic and hydrocolloids pretreatments on qualitative and sensory characteristics of processed barberries

Background and objectives: this study aimed to assess factors affecting the quality of barberry jam for texture uniformity.materials and methods: treatments included fresh dried barberry fruits. when processing fresh barberry fruits, pretreatments included blanching, osmosis dehydration and hydrocolloid compounds. blanching of fresh barberry fruits was carried out in boiled water for 5 and 10 s. osmosis dehydration of fresh fruits was carried out in 50% sugar solution for 2 and 3 h. pectin and guar (two hydrocolloid compounds) were added (respectively 0.2 and 0.5%) during jam processing to create high consistency. all pretreatments except osmosis dehydration in sugar solution were used to preparing dried barberry jams. acidity, soluble solid proportion, ph, ascorbic acid, anthocyanin, two-phasic factor and viscosity were assessed for jam samples. sensory evaluation of the jams (aroma, taste, color, texture, overall acceptance) was carried out by trained judges in the panel.results: results showed that the lowest two-phasic level in fresh barberry jam was the sample with 0.5% pectin (0.99) and the highest two-phasic level was the control sample (0.52). the lowest two-phasic level in the jam achieved from dried barberry were the samples containing guar hydrocolloid. dried barberry jam samples with 0.5% guar included the highest viscosity. in sensory evaluation, no significant difference was reported within all the samples. conclusions: jam samples made from fresh and dried barberry containing 0.5% pectin and 0.2% guar included the highest texture uniformity, respectively.