Vinegar production from cashew apple

Abstract

Cashew apple weighing 8-10 times that of nut is a pseudo fruit formed by the swollen receptacle and is highly nutritious. It is a valuable source of sugars, minerals and vitamins. The annual production of cashew apple in our country is estimated to be around 60 lakh tons, major quantity of which is being wasted. Technologies have been standardized for the removal of tannin as well as for the preparation of many value added products from cashew apple at Cashew Research Station, Madakkathara under Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur.Cashew apple is highly perishable and gets fermented easily. A trial was conducted at Cashew Research Station, Madakkathara to standardize the method for the preparation of vinegar from cashew apple.Vinegar could be prepared by alcoholic and subsequent acidic fermentation of the juice in 3 weeks' time. There were six treatments with ingredients like sago, ammonium sulphate, citric acid etc. The sample with cashew apple juice (1 litre), sugar (80g) and yeast (1g) along with mother vinegar (3 litre) had the acidity of 4.66 per cent which was rated the best treatment for cashew apple vinegar production. The selected technology was further standardized for large scale production of vinegar to take up continuous production on commercial basis.