Efficacy of various techniques on biochemical characteristics and bitterness of pummelo juice

The consumer acceptability of pummelo juice is affected badly due to the presence of bitter principles in it. Therefore in order to avoid such bitterness development, the extracted juice from pummelo was subjected to five different treatments like juice diffused into syrup (70°Brix), lye peeling of segments in boiling NaOH for 2-3 min, increasing the pH of juice, hot water treatment (50 °C) prior to peeling for 20 min and without any treatment (control) for suppressing the development of bitterness in the juice. Based on bio-chemical analysis, diffusion of juice into syrup (70°Brix) showed better result as compared to other treatments. The maximum amount of TSS was found in juice diffused into syrup (i. e. 45, 30 and 15°Brix) along with highest TSS/acid ratio (92.21, 49.87 and 17.53). Higher amount of acidity was observed in pH adjusted samples with 4.25, 4.50 and 4.75 respectively. However, control samples showed higher amount of ascorbic acid (73.97 mg/100 ml juice) content followed by pH adjusted samples. The highest organoleptic score for taste (8.00), colour (8.83), aroma (8.66), overall acceptability (7.88) and extent of debittering (7.50) were recorded in juice diffused into syrup 70°Brix and achieved final TSS of juice at 45, 30 and 15°Brix respectively. Moreover, the above treatment (juice diffused into syrup 70°Brix) showed promising low cost and easy to adopt technique of debittering in respect of extent of debittering and maintaining sensory quality during storage of pummel juice.