Assessment of the Best-Before Date of Clarified and Pasteurised Cashew Apple Juice: A Nutritional and Kinetic Approach

Abstract

As part of efforts to promote the cashew apple in Ivory Coast, a gelatine-clarified and pasteurised juice has been developed. Unitary operations such as clarification, filtration and pasteurisation have an impact on the nutritional and microbiological parameters of cashew apple juice.This study aims to determine the best-before date (BBD) based on changes in nutritional and microbiological parameters during storage. The juice was stored for sixteen(16) weeks at three temperatures: 4 °C, 20 °C and 28 °C. The results show a significant influence of temperature on the stability of vitamin C. The initial content (289.4 mg/100 mL) decreased to 133.84 mg/100 mL at 4 °C, 131.3 mg/100 mL at 20 °C and 3.62 mg/100 mL at 28 °C, that is, loss percentages of 54% at 4°C, 54.57% at 20°C and 98.74% at room temperature. The degradation rate constants (-0.059; -0.06; -0.312) indicate accelerated kinetics at higher temperatures. From a microbiological point of view, pasteurised clarified cashew apple juice remains of satisfactory quality regardless of the storage temperature. Pearson’s correlation analysis estimated the shelf life to be 25 weeks at 4 °C, 22 weeks at 20 °C and 11 weeks at 28 °C. These results show that refrigeration is the best option for preserving the nutritional quality of the juice. This study provides useful data for optimising storage conditions and the industrial processing of cashew apple juice.