Preparation and quality evaluation of ready to serve beverage (RTS) from orange juice and Aloe vera gel during storage

Abstract

Citation Tusneem Kausar, Farhat Shamim, Faiza Iftikahr Gorsi and Ammara Ainee. Preparation and quality evaluation of ready to serve beverage (RTS) from orange juice and Aloe vera gel during storage. Pure and Applied Biology. Vol. 9, Issue 1, pp219-228. http://dx. Abstract The demand of health beverage is growing in the soft drink industry. The functional properties and health benefits of Aloe vera are known worldwide. So, present study aimed to develop orange-Aloe vera ready to serve (RTS) beverage by adding 0, 5, 10, 15, 20% Aloe vera gel in orange juice. For all the treatments, physicochemical characteristics, microbiological count, phytochemical content as well as organoleptic attributes were evaluated at an interval of 0, 45 and 90 days of storage at refrigerated temperature. Addition of Aloe vera showed little effect on physicochemical parameters, reduce total plate count, improve total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and reducing power, significantly. In sensory attributes, T1 (Orange juice with 5% Aloe vera gel) was found to be acceptable even after 90 days. It was also found that RTS beverage can be successfully store at refrigerated temperature without significant changes in chemical, microbial and senatorial quality profile and recommended for commercial use and for production on large scale.