<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><article>
  <title>Assessment of nutritional and microbial quality of dragon-aonla blended fruit spread</title>

      <doi>https://doi.org/10.21276/AATCCReview.2025.13.04.36</doi>
  
  <authors>
          <author>
        <name>Neeraj Gupta</name>
                  <orcid>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0233-6574</orcid>
              </author>
          <author>
        <name>Monica Reshi</name>
                  <orcid>https://orcid.org/register</orcid>
              </author>
          <author>
        <name>Julie D Bandral</name>
                  <orcid>https://orcid.org/register</orcid>
              </author>
          <author>
        <name>Monika Sood</name>
                  <orcid>https://orcid.org/register</orcid>
              </author>
          <author>
        <name>Arti Sharma</name>
                  <orcid>https://orcid.org/register</orcid>
              </author>
          <author>
        <name>Seerat Gupta</name>
                  <orcid>https://orcid.org/register</orcid>
              </author>
      </authors>

      <abstract><![CDATA[<p>Dragon fruit is highly nutritious but hasn&#8217;t been widely accepted by consumers due to its poor taste. Its taste can be improved through value addition and thus dragon fruit could become a common household item. Blending dragon fruit pulp with Aonla pulp presents an opportunity to create a balanced health product that is high in both sensory and nutritional quality. The present investigation was carried out to prepare fruit spread, a fruit confectionery prepared by combining sugar, pectin, and acid with blended pulp of dragon fruit and aonla fruit. The storage studies of mixed fruit spread packed in glass jar showed significant changes in physico-chemical properties during three months of storage. Total soluble solid, total sugars, reducing sugars and titratable acidity increased significantly from 60.00-61.39°B, 41.04-42.50%, 17.24-18.33% and 0.671-0.757%, respectively, while moisture, ash, phosphorus and iron content decreased significantly from 29.58-27.93%, 0.689-0.461%,13.85-13.43 mg/100g and 1.095-0.771 mg/100 g, respectively in blended fruit spread during storage. Ascorbic acid content was maximum (71.08 mg/100g) in blended spread containing 50%aonlapulp, while betacyanin content was maximum (15.45 mg/100g) in spread with 100%dragon fruit content. All the samples were under safe limits for three months of storage. The treatment containing 60% dragon fruit and 40% aonla fruit scored high colour, texture, taste, mouthfeel, and overall acceptability rating. The dragon and Aonla fruits possess good nutritional properties which could be utilized for the large scale production at industrial level.</p>
]]></abstract>
  
  <body><![CDATA[<div class="aatcc-article-container"><div class="aatcc-category-label">Original Research Article</div><div class="aatcc-meta-box"><div class="aatcc-authors-wrap"><span class="aatcc-author-item">Neeraj Gupta<sup>1</sup><a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0233-6574" target="_blank">
                    <img decoding="async" src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" class="aatcc-orcid-icon">
                </a></span> <span class="aatcc-author-item">Monica Reshi<sup>1</sup><a href="https://orcid.org/register" target="_blank">
                    <img decoding="async" src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" class="aatcc-orcid-icon">
                </a></span> <span class="aatcc-author-item">Julie D Bandral<sup>1</sup><a href="https://orcid.org/register" target="_blank">
                    <img decoding="async" src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" class="aatcc-orcid-icon">
                </a></span> <span class="aatcc-author-item">Monika Sood<sup>1</sup><a href="https://orcid.org/register" target="_blank">
                    <img decoding="async" src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" class="aatcc-orcid-icon">
                </a></span> <span class="aatcc-author-item">Arti Sharma<sup>2</sup><a href="https://orcid.org/register" target="_blank">
                    <img decoding="async" src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" class="aatcc-orcid-icon">
                </a></span> <span class="aatcc-author-item">Seerat Gupta<sup>1</sup><a href="https://orcid.org/register" target="_blank">
                    <img decoding="async" src="https://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16.png" class="aatcc-orcid-icon">
                </a></span></div><div class="aatcc-affiliations-wrap"><div class="aatcc-affiliation-item">
                        <sup>1</sup> Division of Post Harvest Management, FoH&amp;F, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Chatha, Jammu-180009, J&amp;K, India
                    </div><div class="aatcc-affiliation-item">
                        <sup>2</sup> Division of Fruit Science, FoH&amp;F, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Chatha, Jammu-180009, J&amp;K, India
                    </div></div><div class="aatcc-doi-wrap">
            <a class="aatcc-doi-btn" href="https://doi.org/10.21276/AATCCReview.2025.13.04.36" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.21276/AATCCReview.2025.13.04.36</a>
        </div><div class="aatcc-abstract-section">
                <h3>Abstract</h3>
                <div class="aatcc-abstract-text"><p>Dragon fruit is highly nutritious but hasn&#8217;t been widely accepted by consumers due to its poor taste. Its taste can be improved through value addition and thus dragon fruit could become a common household item. Blending dragon fruit pulp with Aonla pulp presents an opportunity to create a balanced health product that is high in both sensory and nutritional quality. The present investigation was carried out to prepare fruit spread, a fruit confectionery prepared by combining sugar, pectin, and acid with blended pulp of dragon fruit and aonla fruit. The storage studies of mixed fruit spread packed in glass jar showed significant changes in physico-chemical properties during three months of storage. Total soluble solid, total sugars, reducing sugars and titratable acidity increased significantly from 60.00-61.39°B, 41.04-42.50%, 17.24-18.33% and 0.671-0.757%, respectively, while moisture, ash, phosphorus and iron content decreased significantly from 29.58-27.93%, 0.689-0.461%,13.85-13.43 mg/100g and 1.095-0.771 mg/100 g, respectively in blended fruit spread during storage. Ascorbic acid content was maximum (71.08 mg/100g) in blended spread containing 50%aonlapulp, while betacyanin content was maximum (15.45 mg/100g) in spread with 100%dragon fruit content. All the samples were under safe limits for three months of storage. The treatment containing 60% dragon fruit and 40% aonla fruit scored high colour, texture, taste, mouthfeel, and overall acceptability rating. The dragon and Aonla fruits possess good nutritional properties which could be utilized for the large scale production at industrial level.</p>
</div>
            </div><div class="aatcc-pdf-wrap">
            <a class="aatcc-pdf-btn" href="https://aatcc.peerjournals.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Assessment-of-nutritional-and-microbial-quality-of-dragon-aonla-blended-fruit-spread-1.pdf" target="_blank">View / Download PDF</a>
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</article>
