The pH was measured using a Eutech pH 700 Meter (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) and by placing a pH probe (Eutech pH 700 Meter) directly in the sample to be analyzed.
The free acidity, expressed as citric acid (%) was determined on 10 mL of the sample homogenized with 20 mL of distilled water by titrating with NaOH (0.1 N) up to pH 8.1.
The soluble solid content of each sample was determined using a refractometer and expressed as °Brix; moreover, the content of reducing sugar was analyzed by using the Fehling’s solution method [13 ].
The dry matter percentage (DM%) was determined by drying the sample at 105 °C until constant weight with an electronic moisture balance (Eurotherm, Gibertini®, Novate Milanese, Italy).
Protein and fat were determined using standard AOAC methods [14 ].
All the analyses were carried out in triplicate and results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation.