Sonication treatment convalesce the overall quality of hand-pressed strawberry juice

• Quality evaluation of hand pressed, sonicated strawberry juice was investigated.
• Sonication had significant impact on physicochemical properties.
• Sonication enhanced selected bioactive compounds.
• No significant changes occurred in polyphenoloxidase activity or browning degree.
• Application of sonication on a pilot scale is recommended for strawberries.

Hand-pressed strawberry juice samples were subjected to sonication treatments (0, 15 and 30 min at 20 °C, 25 kHz frequency). Physicochemical properties (°Brix, pH, water activity, viscosity, titratable acidity, cloud assessment and turbidity), antioxidant compounds and activity (total phenolics, ascorbic acid, anthocyanins, free radical scavenging activity), polyphenoloxidase enzyme activity, browning degree and microbial load were evaluated. Results showed non-significant changes for °Brix, pH, water activity, titratable acidity and colour parameters in sonicated samples compared to control (0 min). Sonication treatments resulted in reduced viscosity and increased cloudiness and turbidity. Overall, treatment for 30 min showed significant enhancement in bioactive compounds under study. Besides, sonication treatment imparted non-significant changes in polyphenoloxidase activity and in browning degree. However, sonication was incompetent in reducing microbial load. Results generated from this study were encouraging and this is expected to provide platform for future commercial applications on a pilot scale.