Quality, spoilage and preservation of cashew apple juice: A review

Cashew tree cultivation is done primarily aiming cashew nut production. The large amounts of cashew apples are considered as agricultural waste and the by-product of cashew nut production. The cashew apple is a nutritious fruit available in abundance during the summer in almost all parts of the world and is reported to possess high therapeutic and medicinal properties. It is also useful as raw material for many industrial applications. However high perishability, astringency and short shelf life prevents the effective utilization of cashew apples and research was focussed mainly on the production of value-added products. In order to realise the full potential of cashew apples and its juice, knowledge of processing and preservation methods and mechanisms underlying spoilage is needed. In the present paper, the authors made an attempt to review the literature on nutritional and medicinal values, factors for spoilage and preservation methods for cashew apple juice.