Determination of the quality of pawpaw juice produced at different ripening stages
Abstract
The study compared the chemical and nutritional composition of pawpaw juice produced at four different ripening stages for two varieties (sunrise and red royale) with an aim of advising consumers and the biological world when best to extract pawpaw juice. Pawpaw (Carica papaya) is a climacteric fruit. It can be consumed as salaads, smoothie, ice cream or juice. Pawpaw has various varieties that include; sunrise, mountain, red royale and solo variety. The research was conducted from January 2022 to April 2022. A 2x4 factorial experiment was conducted. The evaluation was carried out on two varieties of pawpaw (red Royale and sunrise) obtained from Naro-Namulonge. Results showed that papaw juice produced at unripe stage is a better source of vitamin c and the content decreases as the fruits ripen. However juice produced at fully ripe stage has the highest content of total sugars. The results showed significant differences (p ≤ 0.001) between the samples in most of the parameters assessed. The highest sugar content was found at 100%ripe stage with increased level (13.133%) in red Royale variety. Sugar content levels were low in both pawpaw varieties at different stages of ripening. Vitamin C content of the pawpaw pulp was high at mature unripe stage levels in both varieties with red Royale variety showing highest content (118.25mg/100g). The highest pH was recorded in red Royale variety at fully ripe stage (5.728). The highest Total Soluble Solids were observed in red Royale variety at fully ripe stage (8.4). The highest Total Titratable Acidity was recorded in sunrise variety at mature unripe stage (0.6283).