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Non-alcoholic drinks are commonly made from fruits like mangoes and apples, but vegetables like ginger root can also be used. Ginger's intense pungency and low sugar content, however, restrict its application to non-alcoholic drinks. Adding sugar is one approach to overcome the restriction and maintain the beverage's freshness. In addition, storage duration is critical factor affecting the ginger drink. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of sugar concentration and storage time on the physicochemical, microbial, and sensory properties of ginger drink. Fresh ginger root was processed, and the beverage was formulated with varying sugar concentrations (10, 15 and 20 %w/v) and stored for 0, 4, 8, and 12 weeks. The study discovered that higher sugar concentration effectively inhibited microbial growth and maintained stability, with less variation in titratable acidity and turbidity. Moreover, increased storage time significantly affect the microbial growth and its stability. Sensory evaluation highlighted a decrease in acceptability over time, but high sugar concentrations preserved taste, pungency, and aroma better than lower concentrations. The findings highlighted the dual role of sugar as a preservative and a sensory enhancer, offering valuable insights for developing shelf-stable, consumer-acceptable ginger beverages.
Alemayehu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.