摘要：High intake of sucrose causes many health disorders such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases due to which the use of non-nutritive sweeteners have been increased among diabetic and health conscious people. Stevia is a non-caloric sweetener, extracted from the plant Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni and has lots of health benefits. The thirst-quenching peach squash is very well liked. This study aims to optimize stevia concentration in peach squash. Five different treatments of peach squash were prepared in which (he four treatments (Tl,T2, T3, T4) were sweetened with stevia in four different concentrations (0.10%，0.15%，0.20%，0.25%) and the positive control (To) was sweetened with sucrose (50%). The squash was analysed for physicochemical properties such as titratablc acidity, pH, vitamin C and organoleptic properties such as color, aroma and overall acceptability for a storage period of 3 weeks. Results showed that the treatments and storage period had a significant effect on the titratablc acidity. pH and overall acceptability of the squash. Acidity increased, with storage period and treatment, while vitamin C was found to decrease during storage. The treatments had no significant effect on the ascorbic acid. According to a sensory evaluation, squash sweetened with sucrose has the highest overall acceptability followed by squash sweetened with 0.15% stevia (T2) but increasing its concentration contribute bitter aftertaste. It is concluded that the stevia is a good option for making non-caloric peach squash, but its rate of addition can affect its sensorial acceptance.
