FORTIFYING FUNCTIONAL APPLE BEVERAGES WITH SPIRULINA (ARTHROSPIRA) ALGAE AND STUDYING ITS EFFECT ON THE CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, MICROBIAL AND SENSORY PROPERTIES DURING COLD STORAGE

The study aimed to introduce spirulina algae, which is characterized by its nutritional and therapeutic properties, in fortifying functional apple beverages and to know its chemical, physical, microbial and sensory effects during the 45-day cold storage period.Functional beverages were prepared from green apples and inulin sugar was added in proportions of 0.1% and spirulina algae.At rates of (0, 0.5, 1)%, all of them were inoculated with the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus at a rate of (1%) and preserved by refrigeration at 4C.Tests were conducted on it during storage periods of (0, 15, 30, 45) days.The results showed that the fortification of functional beverages was It has a positive effect on the vitality of probiotic bacteria, as it was observed that their numbers increased in the beverages, while the logarithm of the number decreased significantly after the end of storage to 6.54 colony formation units/ml.The results showed that the acid value of the beverages decreased at the end of the storage period, reaching 3.968.The specific density, percentage of dissolved solids, and refractive index decreased at the end of the storage period to 1.0932, 11.167 Brix, and 1.3372, respectively, while it was noted that the concentration of ascorbic acid decreased after the end of the storage period to 7.37 mg/100 ml.A significant increase in leachate acidity was observed.(based on lactic and malic acid) during the storage period to 0.4223 and 0.5652, respectively.It was observed that a significant decrease in the concentration of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity occurred with the continuation of storage, as it decreased to 4.07 mg gallic acid/ml and 41.61%, respectively, after the end of the storage period.The results of the analysis of the chemical content of functional beverages during storage showed that fortification with spirulina reduced the moisture percentage while the rest of the components increased, in addition to a significant increase in humidity during storage to