Sensory Evaluation of Orange Juice Concentrate as Affected by Irradiation and Storage

Effects of storage temperature and time on orange juice concentrates were studied for samples irradiated with 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 kGy doses from a gamma-ray source as well as for untreated samples. Samples were stored at 0, 5 and 25 C for periods of 1, 30, 60 and 90 days. “Quantitative Descriptive Analysis” was used to measure concentrate juice quality. Samples stored for more than one day lost quality as indicated by increases in ratings for “bitterness”, “medicinal” and “cooked” attributes. Storage at 0 and 5C seemed to have lesser effect on “sweetness”, “oily”, “acidic” and “medicinal” characteristic than those evaluated for samples stores at 25C. Effect of radiation dose on flavor and aroma attributes depended on storage temperature and time. In most cases, higher doses resulted in lower “orange” and higher “bitter”, “medicinal” and “cooked” ratings. These results indicated that 2.5 kGy combined with 0 and 5C of storage conditions, provided a feasible approach for preserving juice concentrate.