HARENDRA, BHAGWAN DEEN, RAVI PRATAP SINGH AND DASHRATH BHATI
Abstract
The study carried out during 2025â26 at Horticulture Lab, School of Agricultural Sciences, G D Goenka University, Sohna, Haryana to evaluate the effectiveness of different packaging materials in maintaining jamun jam quality and extending shelf life. Seven packaging materials were investigated such as Glass jar (T1; Control), PET jar (T2), HDPE jar (T3), PP jar (T4), Tetra Pack pouch (T5), Aluminium can (T6) and Multilayer pouch (T7), over a storage period of 150 days under ambient conditions. The results demonstrated that total soluble solids (TSS), pH and total sugars increased progressively in all packaging treatments during storage, whereas acidity, vitamin C, anthocyanin content, total phenolic content and overall sensory acceptability declined with storage duration. Among all the packaging materials, the multilayer pouch (T7) exhibited the highest retention of quality attributes with the least increase in TSS (68.00-69.76 °Brix), pH (3.40-3.51) and total sugars (64.00-64.94%), while maintaining comparatively higher acidity (0.58%), vitamin C (17.12 mg/100 g), anthocyanin (75.63 mg/100 g), total phenolic content (302.73 mg GAE/100 g) and overall acceptability (8.02) after 150 days of storage. The aluminium can (T6) ranked second in maintaining the quality of jamun jam after 150 days of storage (70.080 B, 3.59, 65.23%, 0.53%, 16.52 mg/100g, 74.00 mg/100 g, 285.25 mg GAE/100 g and 7.65, respectively). In contrast, the HDPE jar (T3) exhibited the greatest deterioration in product quality, showing the highest increase in TSS (68.00-72.40 °Brix), pH (3.40-3.75) and total sugars (64.00-67.40%), along with the maximum reduction in acidity (0.70-0.29%), vitamin C (18.00-14.32 mg/100 g), anthocyanin (85.00-49.60 mg/100 g), total phenolic content (352.40-122.55 mg GAE/100 g) and overall sensory acceptability (8.40-6.08) throughout the storage period of 150 days. Therefore, it was revealed that the multilayer pouch provides superior retention quality along with protection against physico-chemical, nutritional and sensory deterioration of jamun jam during ambient storage for up to 150 days followed by Aluminium can while HDPE jar proved least. The invention therefore offers a simple, economical and commercially viable packaging solution for improving the storage stability, shelf life and marketability of jamun jam.