Composition and Quality Standards of Functional Caramel

Introduction. Functional foods help to improve the diet, maintain health, and prolong active longevity. Therefore, food science constantly develops new formulations of functional products. Caramel can hardly be called healthy food as it possesses low nutritional and high energy value. Moreover, caramel contains easily digested sugars but no physiologically functional ingredients, e.g. vitamins, minerals, etc. In order to increase the nutritional value of caramel, we fortified the traditional formulation with ascorbic acid and Valetek-3 vitamin premix. Study objets and methods. The research featured laboratory and pilot samples of caramel. The quality indicators of the finished product were determined according to the industry standards. Results and discussion. The research provided advanced formulations and technology for the development of the new functional caramel fortified with ascorbic acid and a vitamin complex. A set of experiments resulted in a nomenclature of regulated quality indicators and functional properties. The changes in the quality of the caramel during storage made it possible to define the shelf-life of the product. Conclusion. The research defined the optimal formulation for the new kind of functional caramel and determined its quality indicators. The present article introduces a list of quality standards for caramel fortified with vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and Vitalek-3 vitamin premix, as well as the indicators of its functional properties. The research provided the new functional food with the regulatory and technical documentation necessary for its mass production.