Optimization and modeling of Iranian yellow carrot jam formulation using Stevioside and inulin by RSM

The reduction of sugar consumption is one of the major challenges for nutritionists and food industry. Therefore, it is significant to replace sucrose with other types of sweeteners, especially, natural ones. The aim of the present study is to produce low-calorie, low sucrose Iranian yellow carrot jam and to optimize the formulation by employing response surface methodology. The three independent variables were stevia, as a low-calorie sugar replacer (0.05 -0.3% w/w) and inulin as a prebiotic texturizer (2 -5% w/w) in order to compensate sugar elimination defect on viscosity and Brix. The fitted models indicated a high coefficient of determination. The results revealed that inulin and suger are as the independent variables which had significant effects on Brix, moisture, viscosity, and sensory scores (except taste), lightness (L*) and redness (a*) (p≤0.05). Also, pH and acidity and (b*) were not affected by stevia, inulin and suger concentration (p≤0.05). The optimization of the variables, based on the response surface, demonstrated that utilizing 5% w/w inulin and 0.23% w/w stevia and 49.3% suger produced the optimum Persian yellow carrot jam with the desirability of 0.721 without undesirable changes in the physicochemical and organoleptic properties. According to nutrition value of Iranian yellow carrot, we could use it for producing functional food and improve its healthy benefits.