Desenvolvimento de embalagem para aguardente de algaroba.

Abstract

Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora SWDC) is a tree from the leguminous family, easily adapted to the caatinga. Although it is very common in the Brazilian northeast, its fruit is not much useable, basically limited to animal feeding. Aiming a larger specie appreciation, several products from the mesquite green bean were developed, among than the spirits. With the intention to introduce the spirits in the Brazilian market, a packing study was made for the product. The product was stored in 3 packing types (glass, PET and ceramics), for a period of 120 days in room temperature. Every 30 days, analysis like: pH, alcohol content and volatile acidity were made. In the end of the 120 days of storage, besides these analyses, a sensory analysis was conducted, with the objective of finding the packing that best packaged the product, preserving the sensory attributes of the drink. It was found that the packing that best packaged the product was the glass package, which didn’t promove any significant increase in the volatile acidity, pH and alcohol content, whereas the PET packing changed these attributes more significantly. In the sensory evaluation it was noted that the glass, by a small difference, was the favorite material. Even with the spirits variations stored in glass and in PET, both remained inside the literature standard. With the ceramics packing it was not possible to conduct these analysis, since it’s a very porous material and the spirits was completely absorbed and evaporated. After all these analysis, the packing creation phase was conducted, where packing concepts were generated. Afterwards the most adequate concept was chosen.