Shelf Life of Pineapple and Lime-Flavoured, Ascorbic Acid-Added and Ready-to-Serve Sugarcane Juice Beverage

Abstract

Sugarcane juice is a nutritious liquid that can be extracted by crushing mature sugarcane. Since sugarcane juice gets spoilt quickly after extraction, increasing its shelf life is required to produce its ready-to-serve beverage. The aim of this study was to find out the possibility of enhancing the shelf life of the pineapple and lime-flavoured sugarcane juice adding ascorbic acid. The sugarcane variety SL 96 128 was selected to extract juice followed by blanching (100 °C). Pineapple juice at 12% v/v and the lime juice at 3% v/v were added to the sugarcane juice as the flavours. After pasteurising the flavoured juice mixture at 70 °C for 10 min, 100 ppm of potassium sorbate, carboxymethyl cellulose (5 g/L) and 100, 150 and 200 ppm of ascorbic acid were added. After hot filling into bottles and sterilising them, the drink was stored at room temperature and under refrigeration at 4 °C. To determine the shelf life, the physicochemical, microbiological and sensory characters of the flavoured sugarcane juice drink were measured. The results revealed that the pH, Brix value, colour and polarity of the samples stored in room temperature decreased in a period of 1 month and of those under refrigeration in 2 months. The titratable acidity and microbial counts increased with time. The refrigerated samples showed the minimum rate of change of all the parameters than those at room temperature, while addition of 200 ppm ascorbic acid showed the minimum rate of change of all parameters under both storage conditions. Addition of 200 ppm ascorbic acid extended the shelf life of the product up to 2 months without affecting its sensory attributes with refrigeration condition.