Innovative use of sweet sorghum juice in the beverage industry.
Sweet sorghum juice, obtained from low water consuming, drought resistant, short duration and seed-propagated sweet sorghum crop, was explored as a source to obtain syrup which can be used as sugar alternative for meeting certain requirements of the beverage industry. Value addition, through conversion of the juice to syrup and beverages, offers farmers an excellent opportunity to improve farm income and productivity in semi arid regions. In this study a new method to produce clarified sweet sorghum juice is demonstrated. The sweet sorghum juice was clarified using pre heating followed by vacuum filtration using a filter aid. The clarified juice was concentrated to syrup with acceptable sensory qualities. Flavoured beverage formulations were optimised using the clarified juice and syrup. Nutritional and sensory properties of the developed beverages showed that the samples were acceptable to the consumers and rated at par with a commercially available beverage. This work has immense industrial and social significance.