Author(s): Jaya Sinha and Shakuntala Kumari

Abstract:
Beet leaves belongs to order Cryophyllales. Its botanical name is Beta vulgaris it is cool wheather crop. The beet greens are rich in nutrients as well as antioxidants which is usually discarded by people due to lack of knowledge about its nutritional importance. The present study was carried out with the objective (I) to dehydrate beet leaves and find out the compositional changes after dehydration (ii) to develop value added food products by incorporating dehydrated beet leaves, (iii) to assess the organoleptic quality of added food products (iv) to find out the nutritive value of value added food products incorporated with dehydrated beet leaves. The fresh leaves were tray dried at the temperature of 50-60°C for 3-4 hours. The dehydrated beet leaves were evaluated for the nutrients such as moisture, carb, fat, protein, crude fibre, iron, calcium and vitamin C respectively. It was observed that the moisture and vitamin C content of the leaves were decreased while the other nutrients were significantly increased. Organoleptic properties were analyzed by 9 point hedonic scale. On the basis of findings, T₀ (control), T₁ (5%), T₂ (10%), T₃ (15%) & T₄ (20%) T₀ was found to best in the case of colour, texture, flavour, taste and overall accpetibility while T₁ and T₂ were liked very much as compared to T₃ & T₄ while the nutrient content of T4 was highest among all the incorporation.