Technological and economical studies on production of date powder and paste from some low quality Egyptian dates

The aim of this work was to utilize the low quality date palm (prishible soft date and seedling of dry dates) to produce date paste and date powder, respectively. Amhat; a cultivar soft variety was used at rutab stage for producing date paste, while the dry dates were used for producing date powder by applying simple technology. These two products can be easily handled, transported, and utilized. They are shelf stable so that can be available all the year round for making many food products. The date paste production percentage from Amhat cultivar was 40-42%. Chemical composition of date paste was: 24.48% moisture, 61.97% total sugars, 2.04% protein, 1.97% fibers and 1.05% ash. The estimated date powder production percentage from the dry date seedling cultivar was 50-55%. The chemical analysis showed that date powder contains: 8.9% moisture, 80.67% total sugars, 2.20% protein, 2.59% fibers and 1.46 ash. The economical evaluation of the study indicated the feasibility of investment in production of date paste, date powder and date pits powder because it had internal rate of return of 28.5 %, which exceeds the posted bank interest value. In addition, the percentage of return to costs was 4.44% and the percentage of return to investment was 19.1%. The overhead invested in the study can be regained within two years and two months. variety had 14.01% moisture content. The date powder showed 8.9% moisture, 80.67% total sugars, 2.20% protein, 2.59% fibers and 1.46% ash (on the fresh weight bases). These results were in agreement with those reported by Salem and Hegazi (1971) for dry dates and by El-Sharnouby et al. , 2007, for date powder, and by Ahmed et al. , (2012) and Abd El-Migeed, et al. , (2013) for soft dates and by Mrabet et al. , (2008) for date paste.