Development and quality of apple -whey based herbal functional ready-to-serve beverage

Apple is one of the widely consumed fruits which constitute an important part of the human diet as a source of sugars and dietary fibres. But, it is poor in proteins and some minerals like calcium. On the other hand, whey- a by-product of dairy industry is an excellent source of proteins and calcium. Therefore, in the present study, apple-whey based functional ready-to-serve (RTS) beverage was developed by blending apple juice with whey and jaljeera extract and was evaluated for quality under ambient and refrigerated conditions during storage. The incorporation of whey had increased the calcium content from 3.96 to 15.64 mg/100 mL and total proteins from 0.07 to 0.29 % in the developed beverage. Further addition of jaljeera extract not only enhanced the sensory quality of the beverage, but also improved the ascorbic acid content (10.57 mg/100g) total phenols (37.86 mg/100g) and antioxidant activity (40.34 %). The developed product was stored safely for a period of sixty days under refrigerated storage conditions with minimum changes in chemical and sensory attributes