Effect of combination of essential oils on physicochemical and sensorial attributes of burfi in comparison with individual essential oil and BHA

The study investigated the addition of essential oils (EO) of tumeric, ginger and cardamon (as sources of natural antioxidants ) to burfie, an Indian heat desiccated dairy dessert. Essential oil incorporation significantly (P < 0.05) increased antioxidant activity of the product. Samples with a combination of EOs had a higher antioxidant activity than with addition of individual EOs, but antioxidant activity was less (P < 0.05) than samples with addition of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). The addition of EOs had no significant (P > 0.05) effect on instrumental colour, textural attributes and composition of the burfi samples, but flavour was significantly affected. Clustering revealed the sample with added BHA had the best attributes followed by the sample with addition of a combination of all the EOs. The combination of EOs significantly (P < 0.05) delayed the growth of the native microbiota in the burfi.