Mapping of nutraceutical and sensorial properties of stuffed red chilli pickle: Effect of storage on quality

Abstract

The present study intended to prepare stuffed red chilli pickles using a traditional recipe that is commonly followed in the northern part of India. A fuzzy approach was applied to characterise the sensory attributes of prepared pickles during storage. The physicochemical properties of fresh chilli, edible mustard oil, stuffing material, and prepared pickles were analysed. The stuffed chilli pickle showed an increase in acidity and total soluble solids, while pH decreased during storage. In the pickle, nine phenolic compounds such as gallic acid (154.85 mg/kg), p-coumaric acid (1.78 mg/kg), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (0.36 mg/kg), caffeic acid (26.19 mg/kg), trans-ferulic acid (0.05 mg/kg), syringic acid (130.62 mg/kg), sinapic acid (68.36 mg/kg), vanillic acid (0.49 mg/kg), and chlorogenic acid (48.63 mg/kg) were identified. The pickles were analysed for sensory attributes during storage (0–90 days) with an interval of 30 days using fuzzy logic analysis. It was observed that sample 4 (stored for 90 days) secured rank 1 among all the four samples and was accepted by the sensory panels. Besides these, the effect of storage on chemical and bioactive compounds (total phenolic content, total antioxidant activity, and radical scavenging activity) of chilli was determined at an interval of 15 days, which was further modelled using order kinetics. It was observed that the changes in red chilli pickles follow the first-order rate equation during storage. According to the findings of this study, this is the first study to fill a gap in the literature regarding the documentation of a traditional pickle recipe and the kinetic evaluations of phytochemicals during storage.

Keywords

• Red chilli pickle
• Fuzzy logic
• Kinetics
• Bioactive compounds
• Sensory analysis