Studies on development of non-alcoholic beverage from grapes

Ready-to-serve beverage of grapes are a product with severe shelf life problems. Alcoholic fermentation, Quality loss, color changes and mould contamination are greatly influenced the quality of grape beverage. Limiting or preventing the growth of undesirable microbial flora in grape juice for the inhibition of alcoholic fermentation is one of the main goal of preservation. The present work was to investigate the effects of preservatives such as sodium benzoate, potassium meta bisulphite and combination of both (potassium meta bisulphite + sodium benzoate) in grape juice preservation. Initially various pulp concentration (8%, 10%, 12%, 14%,16%) of grape juice was taken and preserved with sodium benzoate of 140mg/l. Then sugar content was optimized to 15ºBrix and preservatives of sodium benzoate (140mg/L), potassium metabisulphite (120mg/L) and combination of both 60mg/L + 60mg/L) were used for preservation and storage studies were conducted. The Organoleptic studies of preserved grape juice such as alcohol estimation indicates that sodium benzoate alone and combination of sodium benzoate and potassium meta bisulphte showed significant preservation effect in grape juice. This study nuances the application of the above mentioned.