Abstract

Although palmyrah fruits are seasonal they have excellent chemical and physical properties for the development of food and beverages. Though there is a demand for palmyrah ready to serve the beverage, existing commercial products are failed due to their poor quality. Hence this study was conducted to improve the quality of palmyrah ready to serve beverage by reformulation and modification of process. Pectin and citric acid were selected as stabilizer and acidulant through ranking test with 11 semi-trained panelists. Using general full factorial design, 18 treatments were carried out to optimize the levels of fruit (5 -12%), sugar (10-15 %) and pH (3.5-4.0) in the final formula. The final formulation was evaluated through 31 sensory panelists using 9 points hedonic scale. The formulated beverage contained 12 % fruit pulp, 12.5 % sugar and pH of 4.0. The level of pectin was adjusted to 0.66 % and the fruit pulp was subjected to homogenization (30000 rpm for 5 min). Chemical and nutrient analysis of the reformulated product revealed that the product was significantly better than the existing product in nutrients. It contained 0.14 % crude protein, 0.78 % crude fat, 0.41 % crude fibre, 0.17 % ash and 11.97 % total sugar. Total antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content, and inhibition of DPPH radical scavenging activity of prepared product were 4044.00 Ascorbic acid equivalent (AAE) mg/L, 137.57 gallic acid equivalent (GAE) mg/L and 12.43 % respectively. The developed product did not show any growth of yeast and mold and bacterial count during 10 weeks time. Hence the developed palmyrah fruit ready to serve drink showed better quality in the analyzed properties compared with commercially available products.

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