Abstract:
This study was carried out to determine the effect of sweeteners xylitol, stevia
(rebaudioside-A) and stevia blend (mixture of stevia, maltitol and sorbitol) as sugar
replacement in the production of roselle pickle based on sensory evaluation
(acceptance tests), physico-chemical properties and microbiological quality of the
pickle. From the sensory evaluation test it showed that among all the sweeteners used,
the formulation of roselle pickle using xylitol as a sugar substitute give the most
accepted sweetener compared to stevia blend and stevia (rebaudioside-A). The value
of L *, a * and b* for the colour of roselle pickle were different for formulations
containing sweeteners compared to roselle pickle containing sugar (control). Roselle
pickle with xylitol showed higher in total soluble solids than from the roselle pickle
with stevia blend and stevia (rebaudioside-A). Total calories in roselle pickle that
were formulated with sweeteners gave more than 3 times less calories than roselle
pickle with sugar (control). From this study, the pH value, texture, ash, crude fiber,
ascorbic acid and anthocyanin contents of roselle pickles prepared using these three
sweeteners showed no significant different (p <0.05). The microbiological quality
done also showed that there were no detected growth of microorganisms for the
"aerobic plate count", "total coliform", "yeast and mould count", " stapylococcus
aureus count" and "lactic acid bacteria count".
