Enhancing consumer’s acceptability of Pomelo juice (Citrus grandis Linn.)through blending with sweet orange juice

This study aimed to enhance the consumers’ acceptability of pomelo fruit juice by
reducing its bitterness by blending it with sweet orange juice. The study involved the extraction
of pomelo and sweet orange juices and the preparation of their blends. The blends were prepared
by adding sweet orange juice with pomelo juice in different proportions and compared with pure
pomelo and pure sweet orange juices by sensory evaluation. The prepared blends were subjected
to sensory evaluation using a hedonic scale. The sensory evaluation revealed that the blending
ratio of 3:2 (pomelo: sweet orange), matched the overall consumers’ acceptability to that of the
sweet orange juice. Moreover, the prepared drinks were stored for 90 days to evaluate their shelf-
life and changes in biochemical properties such as TSS, pH, total sugar, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, vitamin C, titratable acidity and the microbial counts were analyzed at intervals
of 30 days. Some biochemical properties such as TSS, pH, total sugar and reducing sugar were
noted to be increasing with storage duration. Whereas, other biochemical properties such as
vitamin C, titrable acidity, and non-reducing sugar decreased with the increase in storage
duration. The microbial counts were found to be within limits for consumption up to 90 days.
This finding has resulted in a minimal processing technique that has potential to increase the
utilization of the underutilized pomelo, in the form of fruit juice. Furthermore, the blends thus
prepared were completely natural beverages that has the potential to compete heavily with
synthetic drinks.