Adding value to pineapple: The potential of fruit juice preparation

Post-harvest losses are a major threat to development of pineapple value chain but there is the potential of adding value by processing into juice. The review analysed relevant literature on adding value to pineapple, potential of processing pineapple into fresh juice and reducing the post-harvest losses by producers as thematic areas. AGORA, Research Gate and Google Scholar software were used to select ten papers that met the inclusion criteria. Content analysis technique was used to examine three studies based on the major and sub-themes. The results showed that freshly processed fruit into juice can be stabilized using thermal processing, freezing, refrigeration and vacuum packaging. Freshly produced juice can retain its quality up to 12 months when stored at temperature of -18 o C. Key challenges in the processing of fruits included technical, infrastructural and institutional issues.The study concludes that there is the possibility to prepare fruit juice from pineapple to add value and reduce post-harvest losses. However, there is the need to ensure chemical and microbiological safety of fruits and present juice in convenient form. Texture, taste, color and flavour quality concerns should be addressed. The constituents of pineapple, juice stabilization, packaging and storage are key aspects of value addition.