Paper Title
The Use of Date Flesh as Sugar Substitute in Cracker

Abstract
Date fruit (Pheonix dactylifera L.) is well known as an important source of sugar (mainly fructose, glucose, and sucrose), dietary fibers, minerals, vitamins and bioactive compounds. The aim of this study was to evaluate physicochemical and sensory properties of cracker as affected by substituting sugar with date flesh of cultivar Deglet Nour at 0 � 80 % of sugar. The date flesh in this experiment contained 10.6% moisture, 1.7% protein, 1.6 %ash, 0.3 % fat, 7.6 % fiber and 78.0 % carbohydrate. The results showed that increasing of date flesh substitution resulted in a decrease in color lightness (l*), hardness and all sensory attributes but an increase in redness (a*), yellowness, (b*), water activity and fiber contents of the product. Cracker with date flesh substituted up to 60 % of total sugar gained overall acceptability at 6.55 point of 9 point-Hedonic score. Date flesh could be used as an alternative natural sweetener as well as an excellent fiber source in making healthy and nutritive baked products Keywords- Cracker, Date, Sugar, Sensory Quality, Physicochemical Properties