ABSTRACT

Ripe plantain is one of the staple fruit in Nigeria. The high wastage of fruits at their peak of production during their season has led to several ways of preservation. Production of fruit juice from ripe plantain is one of the ways tha can help reduce wastage of the fruit during peak of production. This project work was carried out to evaluate the suitability of ripe plantain as a raw material in the production of fruit juice. This was done by producing juice from ripe plantain pulp through extraction. The extracted juice was subjected to proximate analysis and sensory evaluation. The result from the proximate aiialysis showed that ripe plantain juice was higher in protein, fat and specific gravity than the commercial banana juice. The result also showed that in vitamin content ripe plantain juice contained a high amount of vitamin C and in mineral a high in content of potassium than the banana juice. For sensory evaluation, the was no significant difference between the ripe plantain juice and the commercial banana juice in terms of taste, flavor and overall acceptability. Based on the result obtained, ripe plantain juice can therefore be highly recommended as a good source of nutrient for human consumption.