Quality Stability Evaluation of Citric Acid and Refined Sugar as Raw Material in Isotonic Beverage Production

Abstract

PT Amerta Indah Otsuka markets and distributes nutraceutical products that focus on significant contributions and trust in consumers and the community. Pocari Sweat is an isotonic beverage brand which contains various important ions to replace lost fluids in the body. Two of the most used raw materials in Pocari Sweat products would be sugar and citric acid. This study was conducted to observe the quality of incoming citric acid and refined sugar materials from its physicochemical properties, by analyzing its stability throughout 30 sample batches from January until September 2024. The stability analysis was examined using process capability index measurement. Moreover, a comparison test between analysis results with its certificate of analysis documents was also observed using IBM SPSS statistical analysis. The results showed that the process capability index of citric acid and refined sugar samples were greater than 1.33 and can be considered to have good stability. In terms of comparison test, all of the parameter analysis showed to be in the acceptable specification range, aligned with the company standards. However, slight comparison variations were found for citric acid’s moisture content and assay as well as refined sugar’s ash conductivity and polarization, which all of those samples exhibit p-value below 0.05. Overall, the present study showed that the quality of citric acid and refined sugar from 30 sample batches from January until September 2024 were still within the company's specification.