Development of nutritional Spread (ready-to-serve food) from <i>Cucumis callosus</i>: Impact on physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory attributes during storage

Nutrient deficiency disorders due to malnutrition are rapidly increasing and are associated with numerous co-morbidities. In such a scenario, developing functional food and value-added products from pharmacologically, nutritionally, and therapeutically rich plants is essential. Hence, the present study aimed to develop a nutritionally rich and healthier functional food, i.e., spread from Cucumis callosus (CA) by blending with Malus domestica (MD). Various blends were prepared manually for MD: CA, i.e., C (100:0), T1 (50:50), T2 (25:75), and T3 (0:100). The developed Spread was stored at room temperature and further evaluated for nutritional, sensory, and shelf-life attributes for three months. The developed product indicated that the blending and storage period had a significant (p<0.05) impact on nutritional parameters. The TSS (68.22±0.06 to 69.83±0.050Bx), pH (3.24±0.13 to 4.97±0.00), titrable acidity (1.18±0.08 to 1.66±0.12%), pectin (0.28±0.02 to 0.83±0.03%), β-carotene (2.07±0.02 to 3.00±0.02mg/100gm), vitamin A (3.45±0.03 to 4.98±0.06 I.U.), anthocyanin (1.29±0.38 to 1.71±0.08mg/100gm), reducing sugar (19.88±0.18 to 27.73±0.24%), total sugar (55.01±0.10 to 60.14±0.07%), non-reducing sugar (30.30±0.63 to 34.44±0.15%), moisture (45.17±0.03 to 57.05±0.11%), and ash (0.50±0.02 to 0.56±0.01%) varied significantly. In terms of sensory evaluation, all the blends showed non-significant differences. However, the spread T3 (100% CA pulp) received the highest score, indicating its high sensory acceptability. This indicates that CA can be utilized to develop intermediate moisture food products, i.e., spread with nutritional richness and sensory acceptability.