CLARIFICATION EFFECTS IN A FUNCTIONAL COPOAZÚ (Theobroma grandiflorum) BEVERAGE

Copoazú is an Amazonia tropical fruit with outstanding sensory characteristics. Bromatological composition showed that the pulp has a high content of carbohydrates, fiber, protein, potassium and magnesium and has low sodium content. These characteristics made copoazú´s pulp an interesting food matrix to innovate inclusion of bioactive compounds in order to obtain functional drinks. Nevertheless, pulp also contains a starch fraction and some other sugars compounds that could be involved in deterioration reactions such non-enzimatic browning and turbidity juice fraction, therefore a clarification treatments is needed to minimize these reactions. This study evaluates the pulp clarification by means of centrifugation and enzymatic treatment and flocculation with gelatin. Copoazu pulp was centrifugated in a 3-18KS Sigma centrifuge at 14000 rpm and a temperature of 4 ° C for 20 min to remove insoluble fiber. 200g Copoazú juice was treated with pectinolytic enzyme (Novozym ® 33095 - polygalacturonase Novozymes ®) or an amylolytic enzyme (™ Amylase AG ® 300 L from Novozymes) in an amount of 100 ppm each to carry out the juice clarification. The enzymatic reaction was conducted at 43 ° C for 60 min in both treatments, after which the enzyme was inactivated by heating at 90 ° C for 5 min. Different compositional traits such as pH, soluble solids (°Brix), sugars content (sucrose, fructose and glucose), organic acids content (malic, citric, ascorbic, succinic and oxalic acids) were assessed together with a sensory acceptation. Results show that every stage of the clarification process changes pulp sugars and acids composition, affecting consumer acceptance.