A research on development of quality characteristics and shelf life of sübye

The objectives of this study are; to develop a standard production technique for the Sübye beverage and to determine its chemical properties, to extend the shelf life of this beverage by adding food additives such as antimicrobials and gums. Through these purposes; three different drying techniques such as microwave, oven and sun drying are applied to fresh melon seeds. Sun dried melon seed is found to be the best raw material for the production of Sübye beverage due to the lowest free fatty acid and peroxide values of seed oil. Standart production steps for Sübye beverage were determined as; mixing 1 kg of minced dry melon seed dough with 1.125 kg of sugar to obtain Sübye paste, mixing the paste with water at 25% ratio. Chemical quality characteristics of Sübye beverage were found as 84.24%, 11.65%, 1.52%, 1.35% and 0.21% for moisture, sugar, fat, protein content, respectively. Suspension stability of the beverage was achieved at the rate of 99% after one day storage by addition of xanthan gum:guar gum combinations (0.04%:0.5% and 0.05%:0.4%) and no significant difference (p>0.05) was found for the Hunter colour values (L*, -a and +b) compared to control sample. It was also obtained that no significant difference (p>0.05) was found between gum added samples and control in the aspects of the sensory characteristics of mouthfeel, taste and overall acceptability, while appearance sensory characteristic was found significantly different (p<0.05). It was observed that 80 ppb nisin and 30 ppm natamycin were found the most effective antimicrobial combination for inhibition the growth and decreasing the count of aerobic mesophilic bacteria after storage of 6 days. On the other hand, nisin:natamycin and nisin:potassium sorbate (80 ppb:250 ppm) combinations were found the most effective antimicrobial combinations on mould and yeast count after the storage of 3 and 6 days, respectively.