Production of mint-flavored beetroot juice blend

Abstract

The growing demand for healthier diets has triggered concern to use red beetroot (Beta vulgaris rubra), a vegetable with high levels of phytochemicals that confer various health benefits. Red beetroot can be consumed as a juice, however, some find its taste and flavor quite unpalatable. Addition of a flavourant such as mint to plain beetroot juice as well as blending it with other fruit juices could improve its palatability. Therefore, in this study, spearmint and cool mint extracts, passion fruit and orange juices were mixed with beetroot juice to form a juice blend. Titratable acidity, pH, and total sugar, vitamin C, beta carotene, total antioxidant capacity and ash contents of the plain beetroot juice and juice blend were determined. Additionally, microbial quality and consumer acceptability of the juices were determined. Titratable acidity of the spearmint flavored, cool mint flavored and plain beetroot juice was 1.3%±0.2, 1.2%±0.1, and 0.5%±0.0 respectively. The pH was 3.6±0.0, 3.7±0.0, and 6.4±0.0 in the same order. Vitamin C content was 33.4 mg AAE/100mL for both spear and cool mint flavored juices and 26.7 mg AAE/100mL for the plain juiuce. The total sugars content in all the juices were the same, 12oBrix (p>0.05), 12 oBrix. Beta carotene contents for the spearmint, cool mint flavored beetroot juice blends and plain beetroot juice were 7.9±0.3, 7.5±0.5 and 0.2±0.1µg/100ml, respectively. The total antioxidant capacities were 3232.6±398.5, 3408.8±269.5, 4058.2±998.1 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/100mL whereas the ash contents were 0.5%±0.1, 0.4%±0.1 and 0.6%±0.1 in the same order. The mean overall acceptability for the spearmint, cool mint flavored beetroot juice blends and plain beetroot juice were 6.5±1.5, 6.4±1.4 and 5.0±2.7 respectively. Therefore, the acceptability and thus consumption of beetroot juice could be improved by flavoring with mint extract and blending with passion and orange juices.