373 Bael (Aegle marmelos Corr.) is an indigenous fruit of India belongs to family Rutaceae and it is commonly known as Bengal quince, Stone apple, Maredo, Indian quince, Golden apple in English, Holy fruit, Bel, Belwa, Sriphal in Hindi in India (Maity et al., 8). It contains 28-39 per cent total soluble solids, 19-21 per cent carbohydrates, 11-17 per cent sugar, 1 per cent protein, 0.2 per cent fat, 7-21 mg/100g vitamin C. In addition, it is rich in vitamin A (186 IU/100g pulp); volatile oils and marmlosines. Its food value is 88 calories/100gm. Thus, it is richer than most of the reputed fruits like apple, guava and mango which have a calorifc value of only 64, 59 and 36 respectively. Bael is considered to be one of the richest sources of ribofavin and provides lots of minerals and vitamins to diet (Barthakur and Arnolds, 2). The medicinal value of fruits is very high when it just begins to ripen. In Ayurvedic system of medicine, bael fruits are considered as an excellent remedy for diarrhea (Das and Das, 5). The pulp contains a balsam-like substance, and 2 furocoumarins-psoralen and marmelosin (C 13 H 12 O 3 ), highest in the pulp of the large, cultivated forms. It can be processed into delicious products like candy, squash, toffee, slab, pulp powder, and nectar. This paper reports on the feasibility for the development of value added product (bael candy) from local cultivar of West Bengal and cv. NB-5 in order to minimize the wastage, to promote the product as export item and to uplift the nutritional and socio-economic status of vulnerable commodities of West Bengal. The experiments were carried out in the Laboratory of Post Harvest Technology, Research Complex, Kalyani, BCKV, West Bengal during the year 2008-2010 with a view to analyze the physico- chemical characteristics and sensory attributes of fresh fruit and its processed product. The two cultivars of bael fruit were procurement from the NDUAT, Faizabad cv. NB-5 and one of the Local cultivar from BCKV Campus, Kalyani. Climatically the region comes under tropical humid with rainfall of 0.00 to 241.2 mm, temperature maximum 37.58°C and minimum 9.26°C along with RH (%) 93.25 to 57.5 (Annual average) by AICRP on Agricultural Meteorology, BCKV, Kalyani (2008-2010). Fully matured and turn up of pulp colour (light yellow colour of pulp) were used for processed product and washed with tap water. The fruits were made into half horizontally along with suitable size of slice pieces (2.5 × 6.0 × 0.3 cm) for preparing product with the help of a cutter machine. The pieces were treated by alum at different concentration (0.0, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5%) and blanched (28 minutes at 7 kg/ cm 2 ). The product was prepared with the combination of sugar syrup, citric acid and then fruit pieces dipped into 40°Brix sugar syrup and kept overnight, same process repeated for three times and added citric acid (0.6%). The different formulations were used to prepare the bael candy and coded as BCL 1 , BCL 2 , BCL 3 , BCL 4 , BCL 5 and BCL 6 for local cultivar and NBC 1 , NBC 2 , NBC 3 , NBC 4 , NBC 5 and NBC 6 for cultivar NB-5. The TSS was raised to 40 to 65°Brix or above and added the potassium meta-bisulphite (KMS) 100 ppm. Sieved the slices with muslin cloth and washed into hot water for a minute and spread Quality retention of bael candy during storage A. K. Singh *,** , A. K. Chaurasiya *** and I. Chakraborty Department of Horticulture, North Eastern Hills University, Tura Campus 794002, Meghalaya ABSTRACT Two bael cultivars, namely Local cultivar and NB-5 with a large fruit and having a greenish to yellowish green, average fruit weight (723.50 and 1212.50 g), pulp (75.40 and 79.62%), TSS (12.2 and 14.4°Brix), ascorbic acid (13.12 and 27.36 mg/100 g pulp) and β- carotene (1868.01 and 1155.37 IU) were used in the study. The bael candy was prepared by using of cane sugar, citric acid, water and preservatives. The slices were dipped into different concentrations of alum solution for two hours and blanched. The best recipe of bael candy was found 2 per cent alum concentration. Further, the product was stored at room (25-37°C) and refrigerated temperatures (8 -10°C) up to 8 and 12 months along with organoleptic score 4.66 and 4.94 was found best among all treatments of Local and NB-5 cultivars, respectively. Economic analysis revealed that the income per rupee investment of bael candy was Rs. 1.79 and Rs.2.01 for local and NB-5, respectively. Key words: Aegle marmelos, alum, quality traits. DOI : 10.5958/0974-0112.2019.00060.4 Indian J. Hort. 76(2), June 2019: 373-376 *Corresponding author’s Email: amitsinghbckv@gmail.com **Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi - 284003, India ***Email: phthort@gmail.com Short communication