Abstract:
This research was carried out to study the effect of adding xanthan gum as well as sorbitol at
various concentrations to maintain the texture of frozen idli for four weeks storage. The study
was conducted for the concentration of xanthan gum and sorbitol at 0.2% and 0.3%. Further
addition were done with the mixture of both xanthan gum and sorbitol at the concentration of
0.2%, at various ratio [xanthan gum to sorbitol (1:3), (1:2) and (3:1)]. The experiment was
repeated for the mixture at concentration 0.3%. The attributes of texture (hardness, springiness,
cohesiveness, chewiness, gumminess and resilience) of the idli were observed consecutively for
four weeks using the TA - TX texture analyzer. The highest value of hardness was 5266.65g
after four weeks storage. The attributes of springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness
were seemed to have a decreasing trend as the storage time increased. The color of the idli for
four weeks storage was also studied for the L * a* b* value using Minolta Colorimeter. There
were no significant changes (p > 0.05) for the L * value of the idli. The proximate analysis in the
control sample of idli was carried out and it showed that idli contained 58% ±10.1 of moisture,
0. 7o/o± 0.07of protein, 0.4% ±0.08 of fat and 0. 7% ± 0.04 of ash in the control sample of idli. The
sensory study on the fresh and frozen storage of idli showed that there were no difference for the
surface texture and hardness attributes. The sensory scores were not coherent with the texture
analysis using texture analyzer due to the less sensitivity of humans compared to the machines.
As a conclusion, the sample of 0.3% at the ratio of [(xanthan:sorbitol)(l:2)] was highly accepted.
It showed that there were no significant difference (p > 0.05) for most attributes with the control
sample and has the score that ranges in the highly accepted value of the sensory evaluation.
