Development and characterization of carrot based beverage base

Carrot is nutritionally rich source of ¿-carotene, dietary fibers, vitamins and minerals. Carrot is seasonal and its wastage is high due to improper handling, storage and transportation. India is a developing country where there is scarcity of time for preparing food and beverage. Therefore, attempts are made to develop carrot based instant beverage base. Dimensionally carrot can be classified in conical shape differentiated into two major edible parts, cortex (juicy part) and core (fibrous part). The cortex to core ratio varies from 2.17±0.01 for a carrot having length 9.90±1.15 to 0.76±0.01 for a carrot having length 16.57±0.74. After dehydration cortex-to-core ratio varies from 2.02±0.02 to 0.71±0.01. The true density for raw carrot varies from 873.38±3.01 to 1015.02±5.02 kg/m3 for different groups of carrot and on dehydration it is reduced to 404.67±4.57 to 940.49±4.01kg/m3. The juice extraction behavior is affected by pressure exerted by hydraulic press found to be 71.83±0.60% at pressure 14.061×104 kg/m2 to 82.30±1.73% at pressure 140.614×104 kg/m2.