Usage of cydonia plant for the production of turkish delight and investigation of the storage stability

Turkish Delight is one of the unique and oldest desserts of traditional Turkish cuisine. Sugar, water and starch in appropriate proportions are mixed, cooked by adding citric acid, after cooling; it was cut into appropriate sizes and covered with powdered sugar or coconut. The health benefits of quince; Cydonia oblonga Miller (syn. Cydonia vulgaris Pers.) have been known since ancient times and have also grown in all regions of Turkey. It has considerable potential as a food ingredient due to its aromatic nature and high nutritive value. The pectin which exist in quince fruit in high amounts; acts as gelling agent in foods when thermal processing was applied in aqueous media. Therefore quince fruit has a considerable potential in functional food production as demanded by consumers in recent years due to both its pectin content, and healthy and nutritious fruit. The aim of this study is production of Turkish delight in industrial conditions using quince pulp at %10 and %15 by weight and investigation of the physical, chemical, textural, aromatic, microbiological and sensorial analyzes with respect to storage stability. Results showed that all physicochemical analysis results of packaged and 12 weeks stored delight samples are in compliance with the latest published legislation. Quince pulp addition increased redness (+a*), yellowness (+b) values, and colored the samples to an attractive natural amber-like color. Aromatic characterization by SPMEGC-MS revealed that the composition of the volatile substances was primarily dominated by cymol and limonene. Texture profile analysis results showed that quince pulp addition increased the springiness. In sensorial analysis, %10 quince pulp added samples had high general acceptance scores due to their color and fruity taste compared to other samples. As a result, the developed product by using quince that softens the sharp sweet taste of Turkish delight with its mild tart aroma, is thought to encourage the Turkish delight producers to provide a variety of healthy and natural delight products in natural amber-like color, without artificial coloring and aroma substances.