Cottage processing of cashew apple juice in Nigeria: physico-chemical and sensory evaluation of product.

Some manually operated equipment were employed for cottage processing of cashew apples into juice. These include an extractor, mixer pasteuriser and a bottling machine. The apples were preheated with steam for 10, 20 and 30 minutes before juice extraction. The average capacity and efficiency of the extractor were 31.82g/hr and 87.20% respectively. Treatment time affected the colour, acidity and vitamin C content of the juice. Apples treated for 30 minutes gave a brownish colour (which was not acceptable to consumers) with the least amount of vitamin C (120.60mg/100ml of juice). The 10 minute extracted juice was attractive in terms of colour and acceptability. Soluble solids, pH, and specific gravity values of the juice were not affected by heat treatment. From the sensory evaluation of the products, no significant differences were obtained for taste, mouthfeel and overall acceptability. It was concluded that 10-minute treatment time was ideal for the juice extraction.