Effect of Incorporation of Fresh turmeric rhizome on quality and sensory characteristics of kinnow based RTS Beverage

Post-harvest processing is an integral part of turmeric harvesting and lack of such facilities results in huge post-harvest losses. It involves high labour requirement, more processing cost and energy. Hence, there is need for development of technology to utilize the fresh turmeric rhizome which benefits to the farmer as it reduces the processing cost. A practical and economical way to use these fruits and vegetables is to blend two or more fruit and vegetable juices to create nutritious ready-to-serve (RTS) beverages. In addition to improving the product's flavour and taste, blending also increases its medicinal and health advantages. Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken with the objective to develop ready to serve beverage from fresh turmeric rhizome and kinnow blends and to analyze quality and sensory parameters of the developed beverage. Freshly harvested turmeric rhizomes were washed and cleaned by removing all the dirt and impurities. Then peeling was carried out for obtaining turmeric juice. After removing the peel, the rhizomes were cut into small pieces for the extraction of juice through juice extractor. The obtained juice then filtered through muslin cloth to obtain juice. The extracted juice was then utilized for formulation of Ready to Serve beverage at the concentration of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20, 25 and 30% along with kinnow juice as per FSSAI specifications. Prepared RTS was packaged in glass bottles, stored under ambient conditions and analyzed for various quality parameters at a regular interval of 30 days. The results revealed that with the incorporation of turmeric juice mean TSS, titratable acidity, total sugar and ascorbic acid content decreased from 10.56 to 10.16oB, 0.426 to 0.318%, 6.45 to 5.31% and 26.20 to 19.82 mg/100ml, respectively. In general, during storage period of 90 days the TSS, titratable acidity and total sugars showed an increasing trend whereas, ascorbic acid showed a decreasing trend. Based on the sensory evaluation it was observed that fresh turmeric rhizome can be blended with kinnow juice in the ratio of 20:80 for formulation of best quality RTS beverage with minimal changes in quality parameters. The prepared fresh turmeric rhizome blended RTS beverage can be stored upto 90 days.