Post-harvest processing is an integral part of turmeric harvesting and lack of such facilities
results in huge post-harvest losses. It involves high labour requirement, more processing cost
and energy. Hence, there is need for development of technology to utilize the fresh turmeric
rhizome which benefits to the farmer as it reduces the processing cost. A practical and
economical way to use these fruits and vegetables is to blend two or more fruit and vegetable
juices to create nutritious ready-to-serve (RTS) beverages. In addition to improving the product's
flavour and taste, blending also increases its medicinal and health advantages. Therefore, the
present investigation was undertaken with the objective to develop ready to serve beverage from
fresh turmeric rhizome and kinnow blends and to analyze quality and sensory parameters of the
developed beverage. Freshly harvested turmeric rhizomes were washed and cleaned by
removing all the dirt and impurities. Then peeling was carried out for obtaining turmeric juice.
After removing the peel, the rhizomes were cut into small pieces for the extraction of juice
through juice extractor. The obtained juice then filtered through muslin cloth to obtain juice. The
extracted juice was then utilized for formulation of Ready to Serve beverage at the concentration
of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20, 25 and 30% along with kinnow juice as per FSSAI specifications.
Prepared RTS was packaged in glass bottles, stored under ambient conditions and analyzed for
various quality parameters at a regular interval of 30 days. The results revealed that with the
incorporation of turmeric juice mean TSS, titratable acidity, total sugar and ascorbic acid
content decreased from 10.56 to 10.16oB, 0.426 to 0.318%, 6.45 to 5.31% and 26.20 to 19.82
mg/100ml, respectively. In general, during storage period of 90 days the TSS, titratable acidity
and total sugars showed an increasing trend whereas, ascorbic acid showed a decreasing trend.
Based on the sensory evaluation it was observed that fresh turmeric rhizome can be blended with
kinnow juice in the ratio of 20:80 for formulation of best quality RTS beverage with minimal
changes in quality parameters. The prepared fresh turmeric rhizome blended RTS beverage can
be stored upto 90 days.