Effect of slice thickness and blanching time on different quality attributes of instant ginger candy

Fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) suffers from weight loss, shrinkage, sprouting and rotting during storage after 3–4 weeks. This spoilage may be overcome by processing fresh produce to some value added products. An attempt was made to optimize the protocol for production of instant ginger candy. The experimental parameters considered were slice thickness (5.0–25.0 mm) and blanching duration (10–30 min) followed by dipping in 40°B and 75°B sugar solutions containing 2.0% citric acid respectively, for 1 and 2 h at 95 °C and dried at 60 °C for 1 h. RSM design was considered for this experiment and final products were evaluated for their textural properties, TSS, acidity, TSS: acid ratio, taste score and overall acceptability. The optimum product qualities in terms of hardness (2.08 kg), TSS (73.4%), acidity (1.31%), TSS: acid ratio (56.3), taste score (7.98) and overall acceptability (8.07) were obtained for slice thickness of 10.9 mm and blanching time of 24.9 min.