Comparative assessment of post-salting treatments for shelf-life extension of salted kimchi cabbage

Abstract

Salted kimchi cabbage (SKC), traditionally a homemade ready-to-use product, is now also commercially processed. Ensuring extended shelf-life while maintaining product quality is a significant concern in SKC processing. This study investigated the effects of three post-salting treatments (thermal, acid, and ultraviolet-C [UV-C]) at two intensities (mild and intense) on SKC's quality and shelf-life. The treatments' impacts on physical, morphological, microbiological, chemical, and textural properties of SKC were examined. The shelf-life was evaluated using the global stability index (GSI). The study revealed that mild treatments, specifically a 5-min UV-C treatment (UV-M), significantly extended the shelf-life of SKC to 9.56 d. In contrast, intense treatments compromised the texture of SKC, resulting in shorter or incalculable shelf-lives. This underscores the effectiveness of mild treatments, particularly UV-M, in preserving SKC, and points to the need for specialized modeling for SKC that incorporates essential properties for consumer acceptance. These findings offer crucial insights for selecting effective post-salting treatments and lay the foundation for strategies to further extend the shelf-life of SKC.