Development and storage study of antioxidants rich cashew apple lemon blend ready serve beverage

Abstract

The cashew apple despite its high nutrient profile is still in sorry status of its utilization in value added products due to processing unawareness, tannin content and appealing smell. For each unit of raw cashew nut six to eight fold heavy cashew apple is produced. To get rid of astringency due to tannins the concentration of cashew apple juice in the final product was so adjusted that it will naturally bring down the concentration of tannins bellow threshold value through optimum dilution with water. For the development of ready to serve nectar (RTS Nectar) extracted cashew apple juice (20%) was blended with different concentrations of lemon juice and found 3% lemon juice blend to be more acceptable through sensory analysis and nutrient compositions. Lemon juice was found to be able to mask the objectionable smell of cashew apple positively. Cashew apple RTS without lemon juice and one commercial lemon RTS were used for comparison with cashew apple lemon blended RTS Nectar. The antioxidant activity (DPPH Scavenging Activity) of organoleptically accepted combination of CAJ–lemon blend RTS was significantly higher (281.6μmoles/15min/100μl juice) than the non- blended cashew apple RTS (203.8 μmoles/15min/100μl juice) and commercial lemon juice RTS (117.0 μmoles/15min/100μl juice). Similar trend was observed in case of vit-C content, where in CAJ-lemon blend RTS contained 75mg/100ml of vit-C where as non-blended RTS and commercial lemon juice RTS contained 68.0 and 13.2 mg/100ml of vit-C respectively. Total phenolic content of CAJ-lemon blend RTS was found almost two fold higher (0.06%) than non-blend (0.04%) and commercial lemon juice RTS (0.02%). The significant improvement in the shelf life of the beverage was recorded (150 DAS) due to synergistic effect of 70 ppm KMS and refrigeration temperature during storage over the one stored at refrigeration temperature without KMS (90 DAS).