PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION OF MIXED VEGETABLE JUICE

Abstract

Vegetable juice is a drink made primarily of blended vegetables. Juice is an easy way to add more vegetables to any diet. Vegetables are perishable, so we can preserve these vegetables by making juice. Vegetables are equally nutritious eaten raw or processed. Vegetable juice was processed in three types differing in the ingredients. The shelf life of vegetable juices was studied for 60 days storage period. Chemical analyses were carried out during the 60 days at the interval of 15 days. Sensory evaluation, by serving the vegetable juice to the panelists, was done and the secured scores were analyzed with ANOVA and DMRT at the significance level of P <0.05. At this level taste, color, flavor, texture, and overall acceptability were found significant with LSD values of 0.5734, 0.8047, 0.5646, 0.5457 and 0.3047 respectively. There were three treatments of vegetable juices. Treatment 1(vegetable juice with vinegar, and spice) was best for color and flavor. Treatment 2(vegetable juice without vinegar, spice and citric acid) was best for texture. Treatment 3 (vegetable juice with vinegar and citric acid) was best for color, flavor, taste and overall acceptability. The keeping quality, shelf life and consumer’s acceptability of the products were investigated. The products were analyzed for their TSS, acidity and vitamin - C. It was found that TSS was increased slightly and Vitamin-C was decreased gradually during the storage periods. Fading of color was found at the end of storage periods. The sedimentation was minimized by using CMC as thickening agent. The prepared mixed juices were tasted by a taste — testing panel for different sensory attributes using 9 point hedonic scale. The panelists tasted the products and assigned marks for taste, color, flavor, texture and overall acceptability. The mean score for taste, color, flavor, texture and overall acceptability showed secured score within the acceptable limit. Storage studies were carried out up to two months at refrigeration temperature (4° C). The shelf life of juices from the first day to thirty days found that, color of juices were slightly changed and flavor was natural. Then after thirty days fade color and off flavor was found and all the juices were sedimented. But, at room temperature (28-30°C) juices were spoiled after three days.