Comparative Evaluation of Mixed and Individual Fruit Vinegars Prepared from Apricot, Date, Bael and Fig

Abstract

Fruit vinegar is a value-added fermented product that can improve the utilisation of highly perishable fruits while providing desirable physicochemical, nutritional, bioactive, and sensory characteristics. However, information comparing vinegars prepared individually and as blends of apricot, date, bael, and fig under standardised fermentation conditions remains limited. Such comparative evaluation is important to determine whether blending these fruits can provide a broader compositional and functional profile than individual fruit vinegars.  The present study evaluated mixed and individual fruit vinegars prepared from apricot, date, fig, and bael for their physicochemical, bioactive, mineral, and sensory characteristics. The mixed fruit vinegar was produced through sequential alcoholic and acetic acid fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Acetobacter aceti. Based on the fermentation study, the most suitable conditions were an initial TSS of 14 °Brix, pH 5.0, and 30 °C. Under these conditions, the mixed fruit vinegar had a TSS of 5.10 °Brix, total sugars of 3.65%, pH 2.9, titratable acidity of 1.16%, residual alcohol of 0.30%, and acetic acid of 4.31%. Additionally, it showed 63.31% antioxidant activity, 110.6 mg GAE/100 mL total phenolic content, 8.5 mg/100 mL ascorbic acid, and 3.09 mg/100 mL carotenoids. Bael vinegar demonstrated the highest antioxidant activity (75.41%), date vinegar had the highest total phenolic content (67.31 mg GAE/100 mL), and apricot vinegar had the highest carotenoid concentration (2.8 mg/100 mL) among the individual vinegars. Compared with the individual fruit vinegars, the mixed vinegar had higher levels of acetic acid and total phenolic compounds. Sensory evaluation showed good acceptability, with scores of 8.1, 7.3, 7.9, 8.0, and 8.0 for colour, aroma, taste, flavour, and overall acceptability, respectively. Among the individual vinegars, bael vinegar had the highest overall acceptability (8.19). According to phytochemical screening, fig and bael vinegars showed strong reactivity for tannins and flavonoids. While individual fruit vinegars demonstrated clear benefits for particular qualitative characteristics, mixing the four fruits resulted in a highly acceptable vinegar with a high acetic acid concentration and a broad nutritional and functional profile.