International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
Nikita Saha, Sanchita Bhattacharjee, Sauryya Bhattacharyya

Abstract
The present study dealt with incorporation of natural color from Clitoria ternatea flowers into sandesh, a popular heat coagulated product of milk. It was done to improve the antioxidant capacity of the product as well as to make it presentable to consumers. Moreover, this ensured non-utilization of artificial colorants of foods. Sensorial evaluation was performed using nine-point hedonic scale with twenty semi-trained panelists. Antioxidant assays performed were ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging assays, determination of total phenolic contents, FRAP assay and crocin bleaching assay. The present study indicated that ABTS radical scavenging abilities of the test samples improved over the controls in both the products. Conversely, DPPH radical scavenging abilities of the test samples were not better over the controls. Since ABTS assay indicated activities of more polar biomolecules, it could be concluded that incorporation of flower colors to the products improved their contents of more polar bioactives. Significant improvement was observed in ferric reduction potential of the products after color addition, although abilities for crocin bleaching were not that much improved. This indicated that the antioxidants present in the flower colors followed electron transfer mechanism for their activities. Since the natural colorants have no specific flavor or odor, it did not produce any repulsive sensation towards the consumers as was observed in the sensorial evaluation.