A STUDY ON THE PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION OF MIXED FRUIT JUICE FROM PINEAPPLE, PAPAYA, BANANA AND ORANGE

Abstract

Fruit juice is a drink made primarily by juice extractor. Mixed fruit juice is an easy way to add more fruits nutrient to any diet. Fruits are seasonal and perishable in nature and thus need to preserve by turning them into value added product like fruit juice. The experiment was conducted for processing and preservation of mixed fruit juice from pineapple, papaya, banana and orange. The fresh, fully ripe and sound fruits (pineapple, papaya, banana and orange collected from local market) were washed, peeled, removed seeds and finally transferred to the juice extractor for extracting juice. Sugar and sodium benzoate were added to the extracted and filtrated juice. The formulated juice was heated for 10 minutes, cooled and bottled for preservation. There were four treatments of mixed fruit juice marked as T; (Pineapple 50% + Papaya 20% + orange 20% +banana 10%), Tz (Pineapple (20%) + Papaya 50% + orange 20% +banana 10%), T3 (Pineapple 30% + Papaya 40% + orange 20%+banana 10%). Among the treatments, T, (Pineapple 40% + Papaya 30% + orange 20%+banana 10%), the treatment T, secured the highest scores for color, flavour, taste and overall acceptability and ranked as "Like very much" by a taste testing panel. The keeping quality, shelf life and consumer’s acceptability of the products were investigated. Storage studies were carried out up to six months at refrigeration temperature and four months at room temperature. The mixed fruit juice stored at refrigerator rendered higher quality retention than those stored at room temperature. The mixed juice was analyzed for their total soluble solids (TSS), acidity, pH, vitamin C, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total sugar, and mineral content. It was found that total soluble solids, acidity, total sugar, and bacterial load were increased slightly where as vitamin C and pH were decreased gradually during the storage periods. Fading of colour and off flavour was found at the end of storage periods. This research reveals that perishable fruits can be converted to attractive mixed juice and thus increase the preservation time for a reasonable time, which increase value of the product.