Quality Evaluation Of Fruit Juice Made From Ginger (Zingiber Officinale) And Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) Blends.

ABSTRACT

Fruit juices are beverages which are commonly consumed for their refreshing attributes, nutritive values and health benefits. In Nigeria, most of the fruit drinks are imported (Frank et at., 2005). Locally processed fruit drinks are highly needed in order to reduce foreign exchange for importation. Fruit juices are easy to process and blended with other products (Bates et at., 2001). A whole fruit can be directly squeezed, macerated or crushed so as to produce a considerable amount of pulp or juice or may be extracted by water. The extracted juice could be used in their natural state or could be concentrated by evaporation or freezing and could be preserved by bottling, canning or freezing (Frazier and Westhoff, 1998).Juices are obtained from a single fruit or from different kinds of fruits and vegetables (Tombak, 2000). A mixture of juices balances out certain nutrients which may not be present in a single fruit or vegetable. Beside adding body and improving the nutritive value, mixtures also compensate for the sourness or bitterness of a particular juice (Smith etal., 1997).