PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) – Josapine variety is a fruit-bearing plant and rich in nutrients that confer various benefits to the human body. However, its consumption is comparatively lower than that of other fruits due to the tingling effect or burning sensation in the mouth produced by the bromelain enzyme. Therefore, this study aimed to formulate pineapple effervescent beverage prepared from foam-mat dried pineapple powder and evaluate its physical properties, sensory acceptance, and ascorbic acid content in comparison with a commercial spray-dried pineapple effervescent beverage powder (CSPEBP) as control. Five formulations were developed by using simplex lattice mixture design (SLMD) with varying amounts of effervescent agents (citric acid and sodium bicarbonate). Formulations 1, 2, and 3 had acceptable effervescence times of 1 to 2 minutes and maintained a pH range of 5 to 7. The optimised formulated pineapple effervescent beverage powder (OFPEBP) comprised 19% citric acid and 21% sodium bicarbonate and demonstrated optimal effervescent time (1.57 min) and pH (5.17). Both OFPEBP and CSPEBP displayed medium density and excellent flow properties. Sensory evaluation revealed that panellists were able to accept OFPEBP except for the aroma attribute due to the use of egg albumen as foaming agent (p > 0.05). OFPEBP also had an adequate amount of ascorbic acid content of 1.61 mg/100 mL, comparable with CSPEBP (1.32 g/100 mL). To conclude, OFPEBP prepared using foam-mat dried pineapple juice powder has a high potential to be commercialised in beverage and nutraceutical industries.