Development and Performance Evaluation of a Small-Scale Roselle (Sobo) Drink Processing Plant

Food and drink are among the most basic human needs. In North-Western Nigeria alone, 23 fruit juices or soft drinks are being locally processed. Roselle (Sobo) drink is one of the most popularly accepted and consumed soft drinks in Nigeria. However, its production remains crude and local. Few researchers have attempted to mechanize its production process; however, their works had not yielded an acceptable mechanized system of processing the drink. Therefore, the present research work tries to address this problem by developing an improved small - scale Roselle Drink production system that can serve as a datum for producing safe Sobo drink, acceptable to the Nigerian society. The plant was designed, fabricated and tested. In so doing, suitably applicable and locally available engineering materials were selected. The plant has 1.6m length, 0.525m breadth, 1.5m height and a net weight of 118kg. Its capacity per batch is 20 litres; beverage discharge capacity 6L/min, total energy consumption 61kW, delivery efficiency of 99%, thermal efficiency of 96% and beverage processing capacity of 60 L/hr. the performance of the plant, Sobo drink was done with the three varieties of Roselle – dark-red (coded “A”), pale-red (“B”) and the white (“C”) under the temperatures of 600C (coded “1”), 500C (“2”) and the prevailing room temperatures (“3”). Palatability tastes on the products, as regards taste, visual appeal (colour) and aroma were carried out. Results obtained indicated that product A2 (dark-red Sobo produced at 500C) has the highest cumulative acceptability of 80%, while product C3 (white Sobo produced at room temperature) has the lowest at 39%. However, the ANOVA test analysis showed that the difference between A2 and B3 (pale-red Sobo produced at room temperature) is not significant, in contrast to between A2, B3 and C3. The research has succeeded in developing a system, at small-scale level, for producing a safe and acceptable Sobo drink free from health hazards; hence, solving that lingering problem; just as it has succeeded in laying down foundations for establishing Sobo drink production industry in Nigeria, which, as an agrarian economy, can be gainfully explored.