EGYPTIAN BATATA (SWEET POTATO: Ipomoea batatas Lam.) JUICE QUALITY

Background: Heated temperature pretreatment and pasteurization is highly effective in inactivating microorganisms and maintaining color in various foods and it offers a safe alternative method of food decontamination and maintaining quality. Sweet potato (Batata) juice was exposed to heated temperature and pasteurization.

Results: The highest amount of reducing sugar was found in heating pretreated and pasteurized sweet potato (Batata) juice and the lowest in fresh sweet potato juice. With regard to Hunter color parameters the fresh sweet potato (Batata) juice was higher than the pasteurized batata juice samples. The initial populations of the total aerobic bacteria in Batata juice were significantly reduced by pasteurization to zero, while the non- pasteurized control showed the highest population in the samples. Microbial studies showed reduction in total bacterial counts in pasteurized juice improves microbial decontamination and sensory evaluation as well as colo of the sweet potato (Batata) juice without any adverse change in quality. The sensory properties (color, taste, flavor and acceptable) of the sweet potato (Batata) juice were considered to be preferable with the scores greater than 9, but in fresh sweet potato juice the scores lower than 5.

Conclusions: It can be found that the best preservation effect appeared to be pasteurization, in which the microbial population could be lowered and nutrition quality of Batata juice was maintained well after pasteurization processing. These results support the application of heated temperature pretreatment and pasteurization as a measure of food preservation technique for sweet potato (Batata) juice that can be explored commercially to benefit both the producers and consumers.