Assessment of Physico-Chemical and Microbial Quality of Sugarcane Juice Sold by Street Vendors in Three Regions of Bangladesh

Sugar cane juice is a popular refreshing drink in most part of Bangladesh. It has great taste and health benefits;also it is available most of the public places at reasonable prices which consumed by road side customers including general public, shopping personals, tourists, students. In our country, street vendors crushing sugarcane between roller crusher and sold without any heat treatment or preservative, also served with or without added ice and lemon juice. The study aimed to identify and compare the physico-chemical and microbial quality of sugarcane juice. The chemical qualities of juices including moisture, PH, ash, total soluble solid, total sugar, reducing sugar and titrable acidity were found slightly different in Mymensingh, Gazipur and Narayangonj areas. The highest and lowest value of moisture, ash, PH, total soluble solids, total sugar, reducing sugar and titrable acidity were found in 84.33% - 79.26% (Gazipur-Mymensingh), 0.57% - 0.04% (Mymensingh-Gazipur), 5.9 - 2.9 (Gazipur-Narayangonj), 17.48% - 4.98% (Mymensingh-Narayangonj), 21.9% - 6.56% (Mymensingh-Gazipur), 3.7 - 2.1 (Gazipur-Mymensingh) and 0.523% - 0.007% (Narayangonj-Gazipur) respectively. For microbiological analysis, the total viable count of sugar cane juice in Mymensingh, Gazipur and Narayangonj were ranged from 0.6 × 105 - 43.6 × 105 cfu/ml, 4.6 × 105 - 21.6 × 105 cfu/ml and 3.6 × 105 - 36.6 × 105 cfu/ml respectively, where the permitted value is 1.0 × 104 cfu/ml, whereas the total coliform count was ranged from 0.4 × 105 - 6.4 × 105 cfu/ml, 0.6 × 105 - 8.4 × 105 cfu/ml and 0.00 - 8.4 × 105 cfu/ml, where the permitted value is 100 cfu/ml and total fungal count was ranged from 5.5 × 105 - 56.5 × 105 cfu/ml, 21.5 × 105 - 54.5 × 105 cfu/ml and 32.5 × 105 - 68.5 × 105 cfu/ml, where the permitted value is 1000 cfu/ml. According to the Gulf standard, the microbiological parameters of all the collected sugar cane juice were out of the permitted standards, so that a serious health outbreak can be caused anytime.

Nutritional, Textural, Sensory Properties and Storage Stability Evaluation of Newly Formulated Strawberry Bar

An analytical study was conducted to develop a strawberry bar and analysis of the nutritional quality and storage stability of a newly formulated strawberry bar. In proximate analysis moisture, ash, pH, acidity, vitamin C, total phenolic content, and antioxidant of strawberry pulp were found 82%, 0.5%, 2.57, 1.38%, 49 mg/100g, 0.33%, 75.17% whereas, in the strawberry bar, it was found 18%, 0.71%, 2.10, 1.10%, 22 mg/100g, 0.14%, 56.13% respectively. For textural properties analysis, the textural profile of the strawberry bar such as hardness, factorability, viscosity, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, springiness, gumminess, chewiness, probe diameter, threshold, filtering range of strawberry bar was found 5.538 × 104 N/m, 0.000 N/m2, 1.687 × 104 N/m2, 0.6636, 2.908 × 103 J/m3, 0.8664, 3.675 × 104 N/m2, 3.184 × 104 N/m2, 20.000 mm, 5 N, 0.4 N respectively whereas the maximum level was 17.4 N at 29.628 seconds and the minimum level was -5.3 N at 30.166 seconds. The sensory evaluation of the strawberry bar was conducted based on nine-point hedonic scales. The sensory evaluation results indicated that the appearance of the strawberry bar was liked very much and the taste, texture, color, aroma, and overall acceptability of the strawberry bar were liked moderately by panelists. In microbiological analysis, the Total Viable Count (TVC) and Total Coliform Count (TCC) of the strawberry bar were found safe levels for up to third days. But on the sixth day, the TCC of the strawberry bar was not found and the TVC of the strawberry bar was found 17 × 104 cfu/g respectively which is higher than the permitted value (Gulf Standard: 105 cfu/g). From the microbial point of view, the newly formulated strawberry bar was safe to consume for up to 3 days but not for 6 days.