Investigating the Effect of Sugar Replacement with Sorbitol as Low-caloric Sweetener on the Physicochemical and Sensory Characteristics of Strawberry Marmalade

Fruit marmalade is a kind of jam, in which pieces of fruit are homogeneously mixed and not visible. By changing the culture of life and reducing the physical mobility of humans and the emergence of problems such as obesity, overweight and hypertension, the use of sucrose and its derivatives in food formulations is limited and has led to an increase in efforts to produce food with low fat, sugar and salt and high fiber. In this regard, the feasibility of producing strawberry marmalade was investigated by replacing sucrose with sorbitol in various proportions. For this purpose, the physicochemical (pH, water activity, Brix, consistency and calorie reduction) and sensory evaluation of the produced samples compared with the control samples during storage for three months. According to the results, sorbitol replacement with sugar had no significant effect on pH and of the samples (P>0.05). By increasing the sugar substitution with sorbitol more than 38% brix decreased significantly (P<0.05). Sorbitol increaseing decreased the water activity and during storage time water activity increased, which is higher after 60 days (P<0.05). In high percentages of sorbitol, the consistency decreased (P<0.05). The storage time has not significant effect on brix (P>0.05), but had an increasing and a declining effect on consistency of the samples, respectively. Generally, taking into account the results, it can be concluded that the use of sorbitol sugar up to 38% for producing low calorie strawberry marmalade with a 3-month shelflife is possible and produces a product with acceptable properties similar to the control sample.