Enhancing fruit quality, antioxidant profile and sensory characteristics of Phoenix dactylifera L. through microwave based processing

Abstract

Date fruit, Phoenix dactylifera L. is an excellent source of nutrients, but a major portion of this fruit is wasted due to climatic conditions, microbial infestation, and many other factors. These factors are responsible for the uneven ripening of date fruits, due to which major proportions are wasted each year. Thus, there is a need to process un-ripened date fruits for quality enhancement. In this regard, the influence of novel microwave pretreatment for the ripening of three different date fruit varieties (Khidrawi, Halawi, and Dhakki) was analyzed and compared with different conventional (hot water, acetic acid 0.5%, sun dried, and hot air dried) processing methods. The results indicated that in all three date fruit varieties, microwave processed fruits showed significant improvement in proximate composition including, carbohydrates (75–79 g/100 g fruits), moisture (13–18 g/100 g fruit), and dietary fiber contents (6.96–7.78 g/100 g) in comparison to control. Moreover, significant improvement in antioxidant capacity i.e. DPPH inhibition (82–91%), total phenolic contents (286–299 mgGAE/100 g), and total flavonoids contents (49–66 mg QE/100 g) was observed in microwave processed samples as compared to other treatments. Additionally, significant reduction in total bacterial count was observed in microwave processed samples (0.90 ± 0.03, 0.69 ± 0.02, 0.79 ± 0.02 in Khidrawi, Halawi and Dhakki, respectively) as compared to other treatments. In three different varieties, Dhakki was observed to be more acceptable among consumers with respect to sensory attributes as compared to other varieties. Hence, the use of microwave processing was observed to be better for the ripening of date fruits.