Physicochemical, Biochemical and Microbiological Characterization of Green and Black Tea during Storage in Different Packaging Materials

Abstract

The storage of tea is an important endeavor for tea industry. The appealing characteristics of this beverage are its aroma, taste, color as well as its antioxidant and antimicrobial qualities. The different manufacturing strategies for black and green tea affect the shelf life of different types of commercially available tea varieties. Different types of packaging alter the quality parameters of different tea clones. The quality parameters are assessed according to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) parameters. Green tea is superior with respect to physico- chemical, biochemical, microbiological parameters at the fresh/unstored condition than black tea but it is found that the rate of change in physicochemical properties such as ash content, moisture content, crude fat, crude fiber, crude protein are much higher (% reduction is higher) than that of the black tea samples. The biochemical quality parameters (flavonoid, caffeine, amino acid, antioxidant potentials, theaflavin, thearubigin, total catechins, total tannins etc.), and microbiological parameters (antimicrobial activities—growth inhibition in solid and liquid medium, growth of microorganisms in aqueous solutions of different tea) are also reduced in higher percentage in green tea. It is pertinent to mention here that the aluminum packaging with silica desiccants renders better protection against storage-related deterioration of tea quality parameters.

Keywords: Physicochemical, green and black tea, quality parameters, shelf life, packaging

Cite this Article

Saha G, Choudhury SS. Physicochemical, Biochemical and Microbiological Characterization of Green and Black Tea during Storage in Different Packaging Materials. Research & Reviews: Journal of Microbiology and Virology. 2016; 6(3): 5–30p.