CRITERIA OF VEGETABLE JUICES NATURALNESS

The article reveals the international and national quality requirements on vegetable juices. The author studied physical and chemical parameters of tomato juices purchased in the retail outlets in Minsk. Standard and common methods were used during the experiment. The author determined dissolved solids, chloride content, pulp content, titratable acidity, and formol index in ten samples of tomato juice. Formol index value which characterizes the content of amino acid in juice is one of the criteria that determine juice naturalness. It should be within the range 25 - 60 cm3 of 0,1 NaOH/100 cm3. Formol index value for the studied tomato juice samples varies from 28 to 45 cm3 of 0.1 NaOH/100 cm3. The author used enzymatic analysis and atomic absorption spectroscopy to determine the naturalness criteria threshold for cold press pumpkin juice obtained from the local raw materials. The content of sugars isomers, organic acids and formol index can be used as an identification parameter and can be considered as the criteria of naturalness. Detection of fake juices should not be based on a simple examination of the indicators and comparison of the results with the basic quantitative values only. Quality assessment should involve a complex study, including analysis of deviations causes that can be attributed to the properties of raw materials or peculiarities of production conditions.