Abstract

The purpose of the study was to produce wine from carrots and this study was done in the Buea South Region of Cameroon. A sensory panel was constituted based on gender, occupation, and age to test the sample and evaluate the overall acceptability by answering the sensory test form.

Questionnaires were distributed and data was collected and analyzed. The research questions were analyzed demographic and inferential data analysis while the formulated hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using the p-value.

The respondents’ views on the issue about overall acceptability revealed that 15(75%) of the respondents as the majority strongly agreed that the carrot wine is generally accepted. This was confirmed by 4(20.0%) of them who agreed and only 1(5.0%) of them were of average about the carrot wine acceptability.

The following recommendations based on the findings of the study are made: Carrot wine should be consumed due to its health benefits, Carrot wine should not be exposed to oxygen because aerial oxidation may occur leading to a more undesirable product that may be detrimental to the health of consumers and the government should encourage national brewing of carrot because it can increase the gross domestic product.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction

Beverages are constantly inevitable food on the menu of many in the world. This is partly because they are used for entertainment at home and on all sorts of occasions.  They range from non-alcoholic (such as fruit juice, soft drinks, or water) to semi-alcoholic (such as the different brands of beer) and to alcoholic beverages (such as wine or whisky). Most of these beverages are usually produced using raw materials such as olives, malt, barley, citrus fruit, and other additives which are imported.

In Cameroon, the indigenous and less privileged citizens cannot afford these cherished liquor, and some resort to producing them locally by simply fermenting starch-based foodstuff. These locally-brewed wines consumed include: “Afofo”, “odontol”, corn beer known in local parlance as “sha” and “fulere”. However, bottled wine can also be produced using vegetables such as carrots, cucumber, etc. Carrot is available and can easily be fermented to obtain wine.

Over the years, certain measures have been taken by a man in order to increase the shelf life of food and food items (food preservation) from attack by spoilage microorganisms. These measures range from traditional to modern methods of food preservation. These include drying, salting, sugaring, smoking, pickling, refrigeration, freezing, canning, pasteurization, and fermentation.

According to Robison and Tamime (2006), fermentation is one of the methods used for food preservation (bio-preservation) and is a process in which chemical changes are brought about in an organic substrate through which the action of biochemical catalyst called enzyme elaborate by specific type of living organisms.

Bacterial also have involved in acetic acid, butyric propionic acid, and lactic acid fermentation (Marica et al.2007). During the process of fermentation, sugar is converted to ethanol and carbon dioxide as shown in the equation below;

C6H12O6       +     YEAST      →           2C2H5OH       +         2CO2

SUGAR                                                                                    ETHANOL

CARBONDIOXIDE

There are different types of fermentation that depend on the substrate as well as the microorganism involved:

Homolactic fermentation is the production of lactic acid extensively

Heterotactic fermentation is the production of lactic acid as well as other acids like acetic acid, ethanol, and carbon dioxide.

The French microbiologist Louis Pasture is often remembered for his insight into fermentation and its microbial causes. The science of fermentation is known as Zymology. One of the major end products of fermentation of some food such as carrots, sugar cane and, bananas is alcohol which is a healthy beverage in the cuisine of many countries. Carrot, a cheap and readily available vegetable can be fermented to obtain wine.

Wine is nutritionally rich and easily fermented within a short period of three months. The economic impact of carrot wine and its positive effects on the country are immeasurable. Thus, understanding the methodology of carrot wine production is a less exploited domain but yet of prime importance.

Operationalization of terms

Wine: They alcoholic beverages produced from fermentation.

Fermentation: It is the breakdown of glucose in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic respiration) catalyzed by yeast to produce ethanol.

Vinification: It is the conversion of grape juice or another vegetable extract into wine by fermentation.