Papaya nectar formulated with prebiotics: Chemical characterization and sensory acceptability

•Addition of sugar and inulin enhances sensory liking.•Addition of equal proportions of sugar/oligofructose/inulin enhances ash and soluble solids.•Papaya nectars with oligofructose and inulin are as well liked as nectar containing sugar alone.•Papaya nectars with oligofructose and/or inulin can potentially be considered prebiotics.

Mixture modeling methodology was used to investigate interactions of sugar, oligofructose and inulin in papaya nectars as related to sensory liking and chemical characteristics. Mixing sugar and inulin and increasing the sugar proportion raised the liking of flavor and sweetness and the overall acceptability of papaya nectars. Addition of the three components, along with raising the sugar proportion, increased the ash and soluble solids content in papaya nectars. The internal preference mappings showed that all nectars with oligofructose and inulin were as well liked as nectar containing sugar alone, except for some formulations with lower quantities of sugar. Formulations with 6 g/100 g sugar and 6 g/100 g inulin, or with 8 g/100 g sugar, 2 g/100 g inulin and 2 g/100 g oligofructose, can be considered to be the best formulations to produce, with regard to sensory liking and adequacy of chemical parameters, besides all papaya nectars with addition of oligofructose and inulin can potentially be claimed as prebiotic.