The effect of three independent variables i.e. blanching time (3-7 minutes), L-ascorbic acid (25-75 mg) and lemon juice (2.5-7.5 mL) was studied on the quality of spinach-lemon-tulsi ready-to-serve (RTS) beverage. The process was optimized using BBD-RSM methodology and the linear effect of the independent variables on the quality parameter was studied using Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA). A total of 15 runs including 3 centre points per block were obtained in BBD RSM and each run was analysed for different quality parameters i.e. total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity, reducing sugars, total sugars, ascorbic acid, antioxidant activity and overall acceptability. TSS, titratable acidity, reducing sugars, total sugars, ascorbic acid, DPPH free radical scavenging activity and overall acceptability ranged from 10.60 to 13.20°B, 0.37 to 0.50 % as citric acid, 1.70 to 3.10%, 6.30 to 8.20%, 42.30 to 64.90 mg/100 gm, 64.00 to 80.20%, and 6.6-8.3 (on a 9-point hedonic scale), respectively. The results analysed by BBD-RSM suggested a blanching time of 5.47 minutes, 75 mg L-ascorbic acid and 6.24 mL lemon juice are the optimum conditions for the preparation of spinach-lemon-tulsi RTS beverage. As per the CCA, the total variance of the independent variables on the dependent variables was 79%. L-ascorbic acid and lemon juice were found to have a positive
HIGHLIGHTS• The process parameters was standardized for blanching time, L-ascorbic acid and lemon juice using BBD RSM.• Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) was done to see the effect of variables on the product quality.• Physiochemical and antioxidant properties of all the runs were studied and presented in the paper.• Numerical optimization of Beverage was carried out for recommendation to the end users.