Sensory characteristics of food are of utmost importance as it may contribute significantly to the consumer acceptance or rejection of the product. The work presented here has confirmed that it is possible to produce orange juice with excellent sensory properties using ultrasound treatment as compared to thermal pasteurization and hence can be a promising technological alternative to thermal method. Sensory properties of the ultrasound treated juice showed that the samples were acceptable to the consumers andrated at par with the fresh juice. The results regarding consumer preference strongly suggests that ultrasound technology has a significant potential for application in food industry. Ultrasound treated juice sample might be the best option for consumers preferring health benefits from their food along with taste and fresh like attributes. The detailed results presented in the work, first of its kind, provide a basis of understanding of the acceptability of sonicated orange juice and indicate ways that the product could be adapted to consumer taste and can have a potential success as a marketed
product. UV assisted ultrasound treatment gained consumer acceptance to a slightly lesser extent as compared to the ultrasound treatment and also the changes in ORP were more favorable
for the only ultrasound treatment. It has been clearly shown in this study that non-thermal processing technique based on the ultrasonic irradiations helps in retaining the sensory and nutrient quality of the processed orange juices to a higher extent as compared to the thermal treatment. Overall it can be said that non-thermal techniques could be helpful for food industry to produce fruit juice with fresh like attributes and holds good promise for commercial
application.