Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) is well known for its
health and nutritional benefits and is recommended for
daily consumption. This is the first report on optimization
and development of fermented pumpkin-based water kefir
beverage. Optimum pumpkin puree and brown sugar concentrations
were found at 22.28 and 9.07% w/v, respectively,
were made into a pumpkin-based beverage and
fermented with water kefir grains for 24 h at 32 �C. The
optimized fermented pumpkin-based water kefir beverage
was found to be non-alcoholic, achieved good overall
acceptability and high Lactobacillus, acetic acid bacteria
and yeast cell viability of approximately 1012, 109
and
109 CFU mL-1, respectively. Overall, the optimized product
attained superb technological characteristics and has
the potential for industrial exploitation as a refreshing
water kefir drink
