Quality improvement of sweet tamarind using house heating for Community Enterprise

Abstract

Sweet tamarind is a unique and economic plant of Phetchaboon province and it has already been geographical indication (GI) registered. One of its main problems is fungal degeneration which cannot be physically visible. This causes the consumer’s uncertainty on its quality, especially sweet tamarind from small communities. This led to the study on the use of household heat to reduce fungal degeneration by steaming at 100oC for 50, 60, 70 and 80 minutes and drying in the hot air oven at 70oC for 3 hours. It was found that increasing the heat resulted in darkening the sweet tamarind color and heightening up its content moisture (p<0.05) statistical significance. Drying temperature at 60, 70 and 80oC revealed the higher the heat, the shorter the drying time and the sweet tamarind content was darker. In addition, drying significantly decreased the moisture and preference score of sweet tamarind (p<0.05). The storage of sweet tamarind in mesh bag at ambient temperature revealed that the increase of the storage time resulted in a significant increase in the moisture of the sweet tamarind shell (p<0.05) and could preserve the tamarind for at least 12 weeks without the deterioration from the fungus.