Production and quality determination of carob pestil (leather)

Carob is a carbohydrate-rich fruit that has been used as a source of nutrition for centuries, especially in the Mediterranean region. Today, carob is considered as a functional food for several health related aspects. Carob can be consumed as carob powder, carob fiber and carob bean gum in the food industry and it is also one of the fruits commonly used in pekmez production. Pestil (fruit leather) is a well known and frequently consumed traditional Turkish dried fruit snack. Grape, mulberry, apricot and plum are generally utilized in the production of pestil in Turkey. However, to the best of our knowledge, there have been no attemps to produce a carob pestil reported until now.In this study, carob pestils were prepared seperately from boiled carob pekmezs at different addition rates (70%, 60%, 50%, 40% and 30%) and wheat starch (4%) mixture by using traditional technique. Drying of pestils were carried out by sun. The proximate chemical composition (moisture, ash, fat, crude protein and total carbohydrate), energy value, and thichness of carob pestils were investigated. The colour properties (Hunter L, a, b), the mineral contents (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, Cu, Zn, Mn), total phenolic material contents and radical scavenging powers, sensory properies and texture results of each product was determined and statistically evaluated. Results indicated that the best quality of carob pestil was produced by using 60% carob pekmez in the carob pekmez-starch mixture.Nine different pestils were also prepared by using carob pekmez either with grape pekmez or mulberry pekmez by taking the account of the best formulation for the carob pestil production determined in the first part of this study. Nine pestils were also evaluated statistically by the colour properties (Hunter L, a, b), sensory properties and texture results during the 6 months period. In general, among the nine, the best quality pestils were determined as the high ratio of carob pekmez containing and carob-grape pekmez including ones. Shelf life studies indicated that during the 6 months period, nine pestils were not affected statistically in terms of colour and sensorial parameters (p>0.01).KEYWORDS: Carob, functional food, carob pekmez, pestil (leather), carob pestil.