Evaluating Strategies to Control Enzymatic Browning of Minimally Processed Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius)

Abstract

To control enzymatic browning in minimally processed yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius), strategies combining anti-browning agents and modified atmosphere were investigated. Yacon slices were immersed in anti-browning agent solutions—sodium metabisulfite (0.5 %), L-cysteine (0.5 %), or the acids lactic (1 %), malic (1 %), succinic (1 %), ethylenediaminetetraacetic (EDTA; 1 %), ascorbic (3 %), citric (3 %) or tartaric (3 %), or a control (0.5 % de sugar)—for 5 min, then packaged with air or modified atmosphere (N2) and stored at 5 °C. Sensory and physical-chemical (soluble solids, phenolic content, peroxidase activity, pH, color, instrumental texture, and mass variation) analyses were performed. For a given anti-browning agent, any significant difference was not found between yacon slices stored under air or N2. However, when comparing the different anti-browning agents, only ascorbic, citric, and tartaric acids were effective enzymatic browning inhibitors without significantly changing typical sensory attributes of yacon. Among them, tartaric acid is not often reported in literature for controlling enzymatic browning in vegetal products, contrarily to the two others.