Abstract

Fruits are good sources of micronutrients especially mineral and vitamin C. Ginger satisfies the function of color and flavour enhancers. Matured healthy pineapple, orange and paw-paw fruits were used to prepare pineapple-ginger, orange-ginger and paw-paw-ginger based drinks. The drinks were distributed into the same type of plastic container with lid (50-ml capacity filled up to about 45 ml). They were kept under ambient condition (shelves in the laboratory) at 30 to 32°C while some were kept in a refrigerator (24 to 26°C). Visual examinations of the drinks were carried out and they were evaluated for taste/flavour. By 96th-h of storage, all the drinks under ambient condition got spoilt. All the fruits-ginger drinks kept well under refrigeration as they remained acceptable to the panelists for 21 days with pawpaw-gingered drink more acceptable (P<0.05) to the panelists than orange-ginger and pineapple-ginger drinks. The pH of the drinks stored under ambient conditions decreased as storage progressed thus encourages proliferation of fermentation microorganisms while those in refrigeration did not fluctuate.

Key words: Spices, herbs, fruits, ginger drinks, consumer acceptability, preservative.