Effect of different Soaking media on the Efficiency of Carob Molasses Production

Several commercial products have been produced from carob pods ranging from food additives to ready-to-eat foods. Examples include carob gums as food thickening agents and carob molasses as traditional sweeteners in the Middle East. During processing, carob is cut into different sizes and soaked in different reagents to yield permeates that undergoes several processing in late production stages. It has been shown that soaking in basic media (Sodium Bicarbonate 1%) yields higher brix values followed by soaking in alcohol (20%), distilled water and acidic media (Citric Acid 1%) respectively. Her we show that powder form yields significantly the highest brix value followed by small, large, mixed and medium, which did not differ significantly from each other. Moreover, no significant difference is noticed between 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours of soaking. Sensory analysis shows that base powder was the most favorable reagent-size interaction among all samples.