Characterization of low calorie ready-to-serve peach beverage using natural sweetener, Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni)

Abstract

Trend of fruits-based beverages has been increased due to their nutritional importance but sucrose used in them resulted in degenerative diseases. Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni natural, non-calorie sugar substitute can be used in the preparation of beverages for diabetes and weight maintaining approaches. The present study is focusing at preparation and characterization of peach ready-to-serve beverages with stevioside. Low calorie peach ready-to-serve beverages were prepared with stevioside from stevia aqueous extract at different levels (20, 25, 30 and 35 mg/100 mL) as sugar substitute. Antioxidant, physicochemical and organoleptic properties of functional beverages at 0 day to 60 days storage period were determined. The results depicted that stevioside improved the antioxidant profile of peach ready-to-serve beverages by significantly (P≤ 0.05) by increasing total phenolic, total flavonoid contents and DPPH activities from T₀ to T₄ (18.22±0.14-23.34±0.20 mg GAE/100g), (8.20±0.04-12.30±0.08 mg Catechin/100g) and (12.70±0.22-17.82±0.16 mg Trolox/100g) respectively. Regarding physicochemical characteristics, TSS (3.15±0.11-3.0±0.12 %), reducing (2.01±0.11-1.88±0.10 %), non-reducing (2.96±0.06-3.00±0.09 %) and total sugars (4.97±0.21-4.88±0.02 %) significantly affected among the treatments from T₀ to T₄. The results of organoleptical attributes significantly decreased with increasing the stevioside. During storage, antioxidant and organoleptic properties significantly decreased from T₀ to T₄. Physicochemical parameters including pH, non-reducing sugars and color significantly decreased while acidity, TSS, reducing and total sugars increased during storage but remained acceptable by sensory panelists. Conclusively, low calorie peach ready-to-serve beverages could be safe and promising nutracutical drink for the management of obesity, diabetes and its associated complications.