39C-17

H. K. CHUNG, Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrtion, Hoseo University, Asan, 330-100, South Korea, E. Yang, Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, and J. Y. Lee, Dept.of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Hoseo University, Asan, 330-100, South Korea.

Dongchimi is traditionally the favorite Kimchi in Korea. Its juice has a particular taste and is refreshing, so Koreans used it as a beverage. Recently, many Korean traditional beverages have been developed, such as rice, ginger and jujube beverages. We are interested in this type of beverage as a healthful alternative to soft drinks. It is necessary to find a new approach to achieve optimum conditions for development of traditional nutraceutical food. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the quality and to find optimum conditions for a Dongchimi beverage product by response surface methodology(RSM). To investigate physicochemical properties of Dongchimi, sweetness, salinity, color, pH and acidity were examined. The sensory attributes evaluated were: color, flavor, sour taste, sweet taste and overall acceptability. Five kinds of independent variables were made by using 6 ingredients (Dongchimi juice, pear juice, lemon juice, sugar, Vitamin C and citric acid. Forty five samples of Dongchimi beverages were compounded by a ratio of 5 independent variables which were made as follows: Dongchimi juice + pear juice + lemon juice + sugar + Vit. C + citric acid=100%. According to the RSM, the Dongchimi beverage which was obtained with the mixture of 88.89% Dongchimi juice, 3.70% pear juice, 3.27% lemon juice, 3.56% sugar, 0.27% Vit. C and 0.30% citric acid had the highest sensory evaluation score and physicochemical score. The Dongchimi beverage which has higher sensory evaluation scores for color, flavor, sour taste, sweet state and overall acceptability showed higher score for sweetness, salinity and acidity by physicochemical analysis. In conclusion, the higher score for sweet taste, salt taste and sour taste are positively related to the preference of Dongchmi. This study showed that RSM was an effective statistical method to find optimum conditions for Dongchimi beverage development.