Formulation and quality evaluation of fruit and vegetable-based energy drink

Abstract

Among specific food products, sports drinks, as well as energy drinks, have become very popular in the last few decades. Although energy drinks currently available are particularly rich with stimulants like caffeine those are very important to the people like athletes, students, and elderly people. The long-term exposure to various components of energy beverages may cause adverse health effects. The present study aims to develop a nutritionally rich natural energy drink formulation using locally available fruits and vegetables without adding stimulants like caffeine. Different combination of energy drink formulations were prepared using different combinations of beetroot, watermelon, pomegranate, orange juices, and king coconut water. Different combinations of energy drink formulations were evaluated based on physicochemical properties, energy content, and organoleptic properties. The best performing formulation was treated with Sodium metabisulphite (SMS) and Sodium Benzoate (SB) with a control (no added preservative) and stored under room temperature (30ºC) vs. the refrigerated condition (4±2ºC). Data obtained in triplicate (n=3) and the results were analyzed by completely randomized using ANOVA. Mean separation was done using Least Significant Difference (LSD) at α= 0.05. The selected best formula contained beetroot (40%), watermelon (20%), pomegranate (30%) and orange (5%) juices, and king coconut water (5%) by volume with 50 ppm of sodium benzoate as a preservative. The content of energy is 54.74 kcal.g-1 and 12.37 g of carbohydrate per 100 mL of beverage. Therefore the product can be stored at refrigerated conditions (4±2ºC) for a period of two months without deteriorating the quality.