Sensory characteristics of muscovado enhanced with varying levels of turmeric
Paper Details
Sensory characteristics of muscovado enhanced with varying levels of turmeric
Abstract
The development of value-added muscovado products offers an opportunity to diversify sugarcane utilization while responding to growing interest in natural and plant-based food ingredients. This study evaluated the sensory characteristics and acceptability of muscovado formulated with varying levels of turmeric. An experimental design was used with four formulations: 0% (control), 1%, 3%, and 5% turmeric. Fifteen faculty members and students from Cagayan State University–Piat Campus evaluated the samples for aroma, flavor, color, and general acceptability using a 9-point hedonic scale. Mean scores were calculated, and differences among treatments were analyzed using analysis of variance at a 5% level of significance. Aroma scores ranged from 6.53 to 7.00, flavor from 6.60 to 6.93, and color from 6.60 to 6.80, with all formulations rated as “like moderately” for these attributes. For general acceptability, the 5% turmeric formulation obtained the highest mean score of 7.87, followed by the 3% formulation at 7.27, both corresponding to “like very much,” while the control and 1% formulations scored 7.06 and 6.93, respectively. No significant differences were detected among treatments for color (p= 0.90), aroma (p = 0.85), flavor (p = 0.95), or general acceptability (p= 0.77). The findings indicate that turmeric can be incorporated into muscovado at concentrations of up to 5% without significantly reducing its sensory acceptability, supporting its potential for further development as a value-added muscovado product.
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Johny P. Alvarez*, 2026. Sensory characteristics of muscovado enhanced with varying levels of turmeric. Int. J. Biosci., 29(1), 68-75.
Copyright © 2026 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.