Preservation of Tender Coconut Water: Recent Technologies and Way Forward

Tender coconut water (TCW) is a natural and refreshing beverage for most of the consumer group. It has low fat, low in calories, loaded with minerals and vitamins. The demand for coconut water and its consumption have increased over the years, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, because of its abundant nutritional and therapeutic values. The perishable nature of TCW, and the potential threats of enzyme and microbial activities, warrants an immediate processing of TCW to extend its shelf-life not only to ensure the consumers with a ready-to-serve drink but also to utilize it as a raw material for various products. There are various methods to process the TCW such as traditional approaches like primary filtration, cooling, freezing, thermal treatments and non-thermal treatments along with novel technologies. One of the major challenges while processing TCW, utilizing some of the aforesaid technologies, is the loss of nutritional and therapeutic values. Changes in flavor, color, chemical composition, and structures of some compounds have also been observed with of the adoption of these preservation and processing techniques. The prime focus of this chapter is to discuss the research progresses made over the past 5–8 years in TCW processing, and to discuss the prospects of TCW processing.