EFFECT OF PRETREATMENTS ON SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS OF VACUUM FRIED PINEAPPLE SNACK - A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

Ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables that do not contain any artificial preservatives are gaining popularity amongst consumers. Vacuum frying is a method to produce crispy snacks with good taste and texture and at the same time contain low oil content. Pineapple has the potential to be processed into a snack using vacuum frying and would be an alternative snack product to dried fruit, fruit roll/leather, candied fruit, confectionery jelly and sweets for the consumers to choose from. Different pre-treatments were carried out on pineapple Ananas comosus ‘Moris’ to explore the effect of blanching, syruping and freezing on the fried snack produced by vacuum frying. Pineapple snacks produced by blanching, followed by syruping and freezing were much better in appearance and texture as compared to snacks produced without any treatment, blanching alone or a combination of blanching and syruping pre-treatments.