Effect of high pressure thermal processing on the quality attributes of Aloe vera-litchi mixed beverage

•Formulation of Aloe vera-litchi mixed beverage (ALMB) and ranking of its four different formulations using fuzzy logic•High pressure thermal processing (HPTP) of ALMB resulted into minimal changes up to 50 °C.•Pectinmethylesterase (PME) was most baroresistant enzyme followed by polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD).•Yeast and mold group was found to be the most baro-resistant among the entire studied natural microflora.

Sensory evaluation of four different formulations of Aloe vera-litchi mixed fruit beverage (ALMB) was carried out by a semi-trained sensory panel, and the corresponding sensory data was considered for similarity analysis using fuzzy logic. Based on the similarity analysis, the optimum formulation of ALMB was selected with litchi juice (85%):Aloe vera juice (15%, v/v). Further, the effect of high pressure thermal processing (HPTP) on the quality attributes namely physicochemical, nutritional, enzyme activity and the microbial population was evaluated within the domain of 400-600 MPa/30-60 °C/0-15 min as processing condition. The physicochemical properties such as pH, TSS and acidity of ALMB were minimally affected by HPTP, whereas, the loss of ascorbic acid up to 40% and the natural color of the ALMB samples was affected. The increased extractability of phenolics and antioxidants was observed for the samples treated at all the pressures and temperature up to 50 °C. Pectinmethylesterase (PME) was found to be the most baro-resistant enzyme with the maximum inactivation of up to 54% followed by peroxidase (POD) (72%) and polyphenoloxidase (PPO) (82%). The microbial inactivation during the isobaric period was well described by the first-order model (R2 > 0.82); yeast and mold group was found to be the most baro-resistant among the entire studied natural microflora.Industrial relevanceThe present study gives information on fuzzy logic based similarity analysis technique for ranking of different fruit based formulation as well as ranking of its quality attributes. This technique can be used by the industry to process the linguistic data of sensory analysis and make appropriate decisions for product development. High pressure thermal processing can be efficiently used to develop high quality beverage products.