Development and Qualitative Evaluation of Pomegranate and Mosambi Based RTS

Abstract

The investigation was carried out for the development of pomegranate and mosambi based RTS beverage and its qualitative evaluation under different storage conditions. The quality attributes comprised of acidity, pH, optical density, TSS, Total plate count and sensory quality parameters on 9-point hedonic scale. Evaluation of quality parameters were done for fresh as well as stored RTS sample at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 days of storage under different storage conditions RTS beverage. Samples were packed in glass bottles. The TSS, acidity and optical density of pomegranate and mosambi RTS beverage increased with increase in the level of pomegranate juice ratio at different storage condition while the reverse trends were observed in pH of the samples. The pH decreased with increase in the level of pomegranate juice and pH values of the sample composition 50:50, 25:75 and 75:25 after 90 days of storage were observed as 4.000, 4.067 and 3.850 respectively, under refrigerated conditions. The microbial growth increased during storage period irrespective of different storage conditions. The microbial growth (TPC values) of the RTS sample of different pomegranate and mosambi juice ratio of 50:50, 25:75 and 75:25 were observed as 1.026x1 05cfu/ml, 1.015x1 05cfu/ml and 1.030x1 05cfu/ml at refrigerator temperature condition after 15 days. of storage. The maximum overall acceptability score 7.80 (like very much) was awarded for the fresh samples prepared with 75:25 ratio of pomegranate and mosambi juice. However, the minimum score of 5.07 (neither like nor dislike) was awarded to that sample 50:50 after 90 days of storage at room temperature. It was concluded that refrigerated storage method was found to be superior over other methods for storage of pomegranate and mosambi based RTS beverage followed by BOD incubator and ambient storage conditions.