Abstract

Chris Nkem, Festus Okorafor and Ifeoma Ndibe

Beverages are consumed primarily for their thirst quenching and stimulating effects. Currently there is a growing awareness of the need to take beverages with high nutritional and health benefits. The aim of this research therefore is to produce a stable nutritious drink from coconut and carrot. Coconut (250 g) and carrot (250 g) were blended, the juice was extracted using different amounts of water (500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 ml) at 50oC. The drink sample produced with 700ml of water was found most acceptable by the consumer panel. The sample was therefore selected for subsequent analysis and drink stabilization with different levels of gum arabic (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5%). The sample produced with4% gum arabic was significantly (p<0.05) more stable than the others with only 0.1% level of separation after 72 h. The vitamin C and β-carotene contents were 1164 mg/100g and 29 mg/100g respectively. These results suggest that gum arabiccan serve as a good stabilizer for the coconut:carrot drink.