Oman: Development of value-added products from date fruit
Describing the research methodology, Dr Mohammed al Khusaibi, from the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, says: “The syrup will be produced by extracting conventional heat treatment and by utilising ultrasound at room temperatures. The optimum extraction conditions will also be determined as a function of time, temperature and solids-solvent ratio. In order to produce free flowing dates powder, the syrup will then be dried. Finally the quality characteristics of date syrup and date powder will be determined by measuring its structural characteristics using different techniques.”
The quality of dates depends on storage, processing and handling conditions. Some date varieties are not preferred for human consumption, thus it is considered as waste or used as animal feed. The project is expected to evaluate the possible utilisation of old-stock dates to produce value-added products.
Source: omanobserver.com
