The preservative effects of garlic and ginger was compared with that of sodium benzoate in assessing the shelf quality of locally prepared soursop juice. The soursop juice without treatment (T
1) was used as the control while others in four replicates were separately treated with 50 mg/ml garlic (T
2), 50 mg/ml ginger (T
3), mixture garlic and ginger in equal proportion of 50 mg/ml each (T
4) and 10 mg/ml (T
5) sodium benzoate respectively. The microbial counts ranged from 3.0×10
4-1.27×10
6 cfu/ml juices with the untreated recording the highest concentration of contamination compared with the treated juices of which sodium benzoate had the least microbial contamination. The microorganisms consistent in all the treatments were
Bacillus
sp.,
Staphylococcus
sp.,
Acetobacter
sp.,
Klebsiella
sp.,
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
and
Candida tropicalis
while the distribution of
Streptococcus
sp.,
Klebsiella and
Penicillium
sp., and
Proteus
sp were sporadic. Marginal decreases in pH values were observed in the stored soursop juices across treatments. The results obtained showed that the treatment of freshly prepared soursop juices with sodium benzoate, and a mixture of garlic and ginger improved storage span and reduced health risks of infection and/or intoxication from their consumption.
