Effect of Modified Atmosphere Packaging on Keeping Quality of Jaggery

Storage behaviour of cubical jaggery samples stored in linear density polyethylene (LDPE), poly propylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films under 100 % nitrogen was investigated for a period of 8 months (February-September). Jute bag was taken as control. The change in quality characteristics such as moisture content, colour, hardness, reducing sugar and total phenols was determined at an interval of one month. The experimental data showed that jaggery moisture increased from 10.53 to 15.49 (wb) in jute bag storage while it decreased to 9.45, 9.31 and 9.63 in LDPE, PET and PP respectively. Similarly the L value of colour measurement showed a decreasing trend in all type of storage which indicated that jaggery became darker during storage. The reducing sugar increased in all storage materials during storage. The increase was maximum for jute bag (25.81) followed by PP (14.99). Hardness decreased from 360 to 67.42, 64.56, 97.36 and 1.97 newtons (N) in LDPE, PET, PP and jute bag, respectively. Good keeping quality can be maintained in polymeric films with nitrogen flushing. Overall performance of PET film was best as it showed less reduction in quality parameters during storage.