Storage and consumer acceptability of fruit: Ginger based drinks for combating micronutrient deficiency

Abstract

Fruits are good sources of micronutrients especially mineral and vitamin C. Ginger satisfies the function of color and flavour enhancers. Matured healthy pineapple, orange and paw-paw fruits were used to prepare pineapple-ginger, orange-ginger and paw-paw-ginger based drinks. The drinks were distributed into the same type of plastic container with lid (50-ml capacity filled up to about 45 ml). They were kept under ambient condition (shelves in the laboratory) at 30 to 32°C while some were kept in a refrigerator (24 to 26°C). Visual examinations of the drinks were carried out and they were evaluated for taste/flavour. By 96th-h of storage, all the drinks under ambient condition got spoilt. All the fruits-ginger drinks kept well under refrigeration as they remained acceptable to the panelists for 21 days with pawpaw-gingered drink more acceptable (P<0.05) to the panelists than orange-ginger and pineapple-ginger drinks. The pH of the drinks stored under ambient conditions decreased as storage progressed thus encourages proliferation of fermentation microorganisms while those in refrigeration did not fluctuate. Key words: Spices, herbs, fruits, ginger drinks, consumer acceptability, preservative.