Carbonated Beverages and their Erosive potential–An In Vitro Study

Objective: To determine the erosive potential of carbonated beverages by measuring their initial pH and titratable acidity. Methods: Twenty four commercially available carbonated beverages were included in the study. They were divided into two groups, multinational and regional beverages, based on their marketing reach. Each group comprised of twelve beverages. The initial pH was measured using a pH meter whereas titratable acidity was obtained by measuring the volume of 1M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) required to raise the pH to 5.5 and 7 when added in increments of 0.2-0.3 ml into 100 ml of each sample. The data obtained was analyzed using Repeated measures of ANOVA (RANOVA) and Independent sample ‘t’ test. Results: When the initial pH was analyzed, we found that the mean initial pH of the regional and that of the multinational carbonated beverage was 2.89 was 2.82 respectively. Although the mean volume of 1 M sodium hydroxide required to bring the pH to 5.5 (critical pH) was not statistically significant between the two groups, the mean volume of 1 M sodium hydroxide required to increase the pH to 7 (neutral pH) was 4.54 ml for regional and 5.43 ml for multinational beverages and this was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study can decisively conclude that multinational beverages have a higher buffering capacity and a higher erosive potential as compared to their regional counterparts.