Effect of processing conditions on quality of juice extracted from hog plum fruit

Abstract

The effect of processing conditions such as machine shaft speed, loading and level of ripeness of the Spondias mombin fruit on quality (i.e moisture, ash, fibre, fat and protein contents) of juice extracted were investigated in this study using a newly designed juice extractor for Spondias mombin fruit. The moisture content of the extracted juice was observed to initially decrease as the shaft speed increased from 120 to 130 rpm and then increased with increase in shaft speed from 130 to150 rpm. Increase in loading from 5 to 15 kg per time increased the moisture content of the juice at different shaft speeds. As the shaft speed and rate of loading per time increases, the ash content of the juice also increases. Increase in shaft speed also increased the fibre, fat and protein contents of the juice. The effect of the processing conditions considered indicates that separate and interactive effects of the three factors on the qaulity parameters of the juice were significant (p<0.05). Keywords: Hog plum, Ripeness, Machine, Processing, Juice, Quality