Utilization of prickly pear for preparation of fruit dessert

Prickly pear, an underutilized fruit in India is known for its functional benefits such as it boosts immunity, builds strong bones and teeth, maintains digestive health, enhances heart health, anti-carcinogenic effects, antioxidant potential, weight loss effects and suppresses inflammation. Gelatine based dessert was prepared using cactus pear juice and was compared with pectin based jellies prepared from the same juice. The loss in quality parameters was found lesser in gelatine based dessert than that in pectin jelly. Ascorbic acid analysis showed that the gelatine based dessert had more amount of ascorbic acid content as compared to pectin based jelly. The sensory evaluation was carried out to compare the consumer acceptance of gelatine based dessert and was observed that gelatine based dessert was sensorially superior than the pectin based jelly.