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Abstract
The combined eect of blanching [steam (S) or microwave (MW)] and osmotic dehydration at atmospheric pressure (OD) or
pulsed vacuum treatments (PVOD), on some physiochemical and quality parameters of strawberry (aw, pH, color, rmness, polyphenoloxidase enzyme activity and microstructure), as well as on microbial stability of processed samples, was analyzed. Pulsed
vacuum osmotic dehydration with 65 Brix sucrose solution of strawberry, carried out after steam blanching treatment was the most
eective in aw depression due to the highest sucrose gain during osmotic treatment. This implies the highest loss of rmness and
color changes, but at the same time it induce the greatest microbial stability. CryoSEM observations shows that, steam treated
samples suer a great degree of cell decompartmentation near the fruit skin, as compared with the well preserved cells in MW
treated samples. Dierences in microstructural features observed between OD and PVOD treated samples were not reected on the
measured mechanical parameters. # 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
Keywords: Blanching; Osmotic dehydration; Minimally processed; Strawberries
1. Introduction
The Strawberry, among the berry species has been
obtaining the best commercial development in recent
years. (Maroto, 1995). Traditional processing methods
used for it conservation seriously aects sensorial and
nutritive values of fresh fruit. Osmotic dehydration of
fruits allows a reduction of the water activity, providing
high moisture products (aw=0.920.97) (Leistner, 1995),
with sensorial characteristics very similar to those of the
fresh fruit, maintaining color, texture and aroma (Heng,
Guilbert & Cuq, 1990). Water activity reduction slows
down deteriorative reactions and increases microbial
stability, thus prolonging the fruit shelf-life (Chirife,
1988; Wiley, 1994).
The use of vacuum in the osmotic dehydration (VOD)
(Fito & Chiralt, 1997) allows the improvement of mass
transfer kinetics, increasing rate of water and weight
loss and solid gain (Shi, Fito & Chizalt, 1995). Vacuum
pulsed osmotic dehydration (PVOD) has been described
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-963-877-364; fax: +34-963877-956.
E-mail address: dchiralt@tal.upv.es (A. Chiralt).
(Fito, 1994) and consists of the application of subatmospheric pressure for a short time in the tank at the
beginning of the process, followed by a longer osmotic
dehydration period at atmospheric pressure. This leads
to an exchange of internal gas/liquid by external solution through hydrodynamic mechanism (HDM) (Fito,
1994; Fito & Chiralt, 1997), thus promoting very fast
composition changes and variation in mass transfer
kinetics (Fito, 1994).
Previous studies on the osmotic dehydration of
strawberry have shown that sugar gain is not aected by
the temperature increase in the range 3050 C (Shi,
1994). So, the lowest temperature (30 C) could be
recommended to better preserve taste, color and nutritional strawberry properties. Mass transfer rate was
increased when vacuum was used during osmotic treatment, without important dierences between kinetics of
VOD and PVOD treatments. So, the latter is recommended in order to reduce the equipment investment
(Shi, 1994).
Poliphenoloxidase (PPO) present in strawberry tissues,
causes loss of red color because of deterioration of
antocianines pigments (Markakis, 1974) and browning.
This appears during dierent process operations as a
610
611
Table 1
Composition parameters, aw, pH and residual enzyme activity (REA) reached by fresh samples in the rst step (BT or OT) of combined treatments,
and at the end point
Treatments
aw
Xsa
Xwb
Fresh
S
MW
OD
PVOD
S-OD
S-PVOD
MW-OD
MW-PVOD
OD-S
PVOD-S
OD-MW
PVOD-MW
0.9940.003
0.9960.002
0.9950.002
0.9810.001
0.9740.002
0.9720.001
0.9610.001
0.9740.002
0.9700.002
0.9870.001
0.9850.001
0.9830.002
0.9790.002
0.0820.004
0.0800.003
0.0790.003
0.1620.003
0.1690.003
0.1830.003
0.2220.003
0.1660.004
0.1920.004
0.1100.003
0.1140.004
0.1500.004
0.1590.004
0.9050.003
0.9110.002
0.9070.002
0.8170.002
0.8030.002
0.8050.002
0.7750.001
0.8170.002
0.8030.002
0.8900.003
0.8800.004
0.8550.003
0.8400.003
8.30.3
8.10.3
8.00.2
16.50.3
17.30.3
18.50.3
22.20.2
16.90.3
19.30.3
11.00.3
11.50.3
15.00.3
15.90.3
a
b
Brix
pH
REA%
3.680.05
3.670.03
3.680.03
3.830.03
3.790.03
3.700.02
3.690.02
3.710.04
3.730.03
3.790.03
3.760.03
3.810.04
3.770.03
100.00.0
81.21.3
79.82.4
76.11.0
76.00.9
76.71.7
76.51.6
612
Mfr
Mgl
Msc
S
MW
OD
PVOD
S-OD
S-PVOD
MW-OD
MW-PVOD
OD-S
PVOD-S
OD-MW
PVOD-MW
0.0000.000
0.0000.000
0.0130.001
0.0100.001
0.0090.001
0.0100.002
0.0110.001
0.0170.001
0.0030.000
0.0010.000
0.0090.001
0.0100.001
0.0010.000
0.0010.000
0.0110.001
0.0120.001
0.0070.001
0.0130.001
0.0150.001
0.0160.001
0.0020.001
0.0010.000
0.0100.001
0.0130.001
0.0010.000
0.0010.000
0.0350.001
0.0410.001
0.0570.003
0.0810.004
0.0320.002
0.0460.002
0.0070.001
0.0120.001
0.0290.002
0.0310.002
Ms
mt xts m0 x0s
m0 x0s
Negligible losses of major sugar during BT of strawberry were observed. During insulated or combined
osmotic treatments a notable gain of sucrose from the
osmotic solution was observed (Table 2). Stem BT
applied previously to OT greatly promotes sucrose gain,
especially in PVOD process. Previous MW treatment
only increased sucrose gain combined with PVOD.
Nevertheless, BT applied after OT provokes sucrose loss
as compared with gain due to the corresponding previous OT. This is especially intense in S treatments and
can be attributed to losses of the fruit liquid phase
associated with cell decompartmentation because of
thermal treatment. These results are coherent with differences in aw for dierent treatments and with that
reported by other authors with respect to destruction of
cell wall and changes in membrane permeability during
BT (Alzamora et al., 1997). Due to these changes the
cellular tissue will modify its mass transfer behaviour
during OT giving higher sugar gains.
On the other hand, similar positive gains of glucose
and fructose were observed in each osmotic treatment,
which can only be explained in terms of a partial
hydrolysis of gained sucrose inside the fruit tissue
probably due to biological activity of the tissue (Belitz
& Grosch, 1997). The degree of hydrolysis seems very
similar in almost all the cases, but it was slightly
higher in MW treated samples before OT, whereas very
low values of glucose and fructose gains were detected
in samples stem treated after OT. Hydrolysis of
sucrose will contribute to aw depression in the processed
samples.
3.2. Mechanical and color changes
Applied BT and OT processes provoke small colour
changes in the fruit surface. Table 3 shows the average
and standard deviation of clarity (L), hue (hab) and
chrome (Cab) obtained for fresh and processed fruit.
Homogeneous values of each color co-ordinate,
according with a Tukey test, were reected by the same
letter superscript. Very small dierences can be
observed among L values of dierent samples, as well
as for hab values. Chrome was the color attribute that is
subject to the greater changes; both MW and S treatments provoke loss of color chrome, especially S when
applied after OT. Nevertheless OT increases the chrome
value as compared with fresh fruit. The greater total
color dierence in respect to fresh fruit was obtained for
S-OT and OT-S treatments, principally due to chrome
increase and decrease respectively. Nevertheless, total
color dierence is very close to 1 in many cases, which
will imply almost non-perceptible changes.
613
Table 3
Eect of blanching and osmotic combined treatments on surface colour and rmness of strawberries
Colour
Treatments
Firmnessa (N/g)
L*b
h*abb
C*abb
E c
Fresh
S
MW
OD
PVOD
S-OD
S-PVOD
MW-OD
MW-PVOD
OD-S
PVOD-S
OD-MW
PVOD-MW
5.00.1ad
4.20.2g
4.60.1de
4.90.1ab
4.80.1bc
4.00.1h
3.90.1h
4.50.2ef
4.40.1f
4.40.1f
4.30.1fg
4.70.1cd
4.60.1de
32.01.3a
32.91.3b
33.01.4b
33.60.8a
33.30.8b
33.60.5bc
33.80.8cd
33.60.9bc
33.60.7bc
34.30.5de
34.40.7e
33.01.0bc
33.20.8b
24.61.9ab
24.70.9ab
24.51.8ab
25.42.0b
24.80.4ab
25.50.9b
25.61.4b
25.01.9ab
24.31.8ab
25.51.5b
23.71.0a
25.31.0b
24.71.1ab
29.32.5ab
27.40.5b
28.60.6c
31.61.1g
31.30.8efg
32.60.9g
31.70.3fg
30.20.2def
29.90.5cde
26.81.1ab
26.10.9a
30.00.7de
29.40.9cd
2.20.1
1.50.8
2.60.3
2.40.3
3.70.3
3.20.4
2.00.2
1.940.16
3.60.4
4.20.2
1.390.12
1.590.15
a
b
c
d
Fig. 1. CryoSEM micrographs of (a) steam and (b) microwave treated strawberries at 0.8 mm of sample surface (cw, cell wall; ic, intracelular content).
614
Fig. 2. CryoSEM micrographs of parenchyma tissue of (a and b) OD and (c and d) PVOD, at (a and c) 0.2 mm, (b) 3.5 mm and (d) 1.2 mm from
strawberry surface (cw, cell wall; bz, bonding zone; ic, intracellular content; is, intercellular space; t, tonoplast).
615
Fig. 3. Aerobic plate count (cfu/g) (a), moulds and yeast (cfu/g) (b) and psychrotrophic count (cfu/g) (c) in minimally processed strawberries during
storage at 5 C. [Dashed lines show the permitted levels in this kind of product (Pascual, 1992).]