Quality analysis of natural sweets

Abstract

Children and adults love sweets, but don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables. The worst thing is that sweets contain much of added sugar. Experts state that sugar consumption is a major cause of obesity and many chronic diseases, such as diabetes. A lack of vitamins can also have common side effects and can lead to serious consequences. Fruits and berries are some of the best because they offer so many antioxidants. They are rich in fibre, vitamin C, potassium. Lowest in sugars are blackberries, raspberries, but strawberries and blueberries are also good choices. Nuts are the source of energy. They contain relatively large quantity of calories, essential unsaturated and monounsaturated fats, some vitamins, minerals. Nuts have a low glycemic index due to their high unsaturated fat and protein and relatively low carbohydrate content. Their consumption may lower risk for same diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The object of the research was natural sweets made from fruits, berries and nuts. Plums ʻViktorijaʼ, date paste, strawberries ʻHoneoyeʼ squeeze powder and lyophilized strawberries powder of the same cultivar, squeeze powder of raspberries, blackcurrants, ground almonds and cashews either sea buckthorn juice were used to produce fourteen kinds of natural sweets. The research was conducted at the Open Access Joint Research Centre of Agriculture and Forestry Laboratory Quality of Raw Materials of VMU Agriculture Academy in 2017 and 2018. Dry matter content was assessed by drying the samples to the constant mass at 105 ºC. Amount of crude protein was determined by Kjeldahl method (ISO 20483:2006). Crude fibre content was determined using the modified method of the Henneberg – Stohmann (Rittich, Zaludova, 1985). Amount of crude ash was determined by dry burning of samples at 550 ºC. Sensory analysis of sweets was performed. [...]