Philippine E-Journals

OPTIMIZATION OF SHELF-STABLE AND READY-TO-EAT CUSTARD

Lara Mariz Mulimbayan Catilo | Angelica Dorado | Dennis V Cantre | Reifrey A Lascano

Discipline: agriculture, food and related studies

 

Abstract:

The study was conducted to develop a shelf-stable and ready-to-eat custard with optimum overall product acceptance using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The three factors of Box-Behnken design which are sugar content, processing temperature, and duration of thermal processing, were varied to maximize the overall acceptability (OA). The suggested optimized process with a predicted OA of 9.75 was a combination of 259.977 grams of sugar content, a processing temperature of 118 °C, and a 40-minute duration of thermal processing. The obtained data and mean confirmatory OA are within the 95% tolerance interval of the predicted OA which confirms the validity of the optimized process. The physicochemical analysis shows a pH of 6.27, 0.0825 % lactic acid, and a TSS of 32 °Brix. The heat penetration test revealed that the optimized custard behaves as a solid, conduction-heating food. The obtained lethality exceeds the minimum required for thermal sterilization with an F0 value of 24.16 minutes, thus, confirming that the optimized process is sufficient2 in developing a shelf-stable and ready-to-eat custard. Static shelf-life testing showed a stable product as it did not show any signs of visual spoilage after sixty days at room temperature.