Abstract:
The date fruit is of high nutritional value and its
chemical composition is unique in
providing energy, minerals, and vitamins for human.
Date syrup, date concentrate and
liquid date sugar are among semi-finished liquid pr
oducts produced from low quality
dates at industrial scale.
In this research, some physicochemical properties o
f date syrup,
concentrate, and liquid sugar in comparison with su
crose solutions were studied and the
possibility of replacing sucrose with date liquid p
roducts was investigated. The results
showed that the main chemical component of all thre
e date products was simple sugars of
fructose and glucose. Ash and protein contents of d
ate liquid sugar were much lower than
date syrup. pH values of date liquid products were
also significantly different.
Concentration of total phenolic and flavonoid compo
unds in date syrup was much greater
than date liquid sugar. Overall, processing of date
syrup to date liquid sugar reduced its
nutritional quality while improving technological p
roperties. It can be concluded that in
choosing date liquid products as raw materials in f
ood formulation, for the products that
brown color of date liquid products does not affect
the appearance of the final products,
usage of date syrup or date concentrate is proposed
. However, in other foods where
brownish color of date syrup or date concentrate de
teriorates sensory attributes of the
final products, date liquid sugar is suggested. Dat
e liquid products are also good
candidates for high sugar products with sugar cryst
allization problem.
Keywords
: Fructose, Glucose, Nutritional quality, Replacing
sucrose.
