Impact of an additional grinding step before apple cooking on environmental, nutritional and sensory qualities of puree: a case study for organic apple

Abstract

Organic food processors are guided by the European Council (EC) legislation for developing their products. However, the choice of processing technology remains relatively large. To help processors choosing a technology in line with organic principles, the partners involved in the European project ProOrg have designed an assessment framework which has been tested in real conditions on the processing of organic apples in purees at a pilot scale. The assessment concerned the addition of a grinding step before heating. The effect of grinding was then evaluated on environmental, nutritional and sensory criteria. Sixteen indicators were selected to assess these three aspects and rated on a 5-points scale from much worse to much better. Nine of them obtained a higher score with the grinding step added, meaning that the quality was better. The overall score of the puree with grinding was higher than the reference (without grinding) for the three performed trials. The assessment framework was successfully applied to this case study but some improvements were proposed in order to enhance its robustness and to facilitate its comprehension and application. The assessment framework should be an interesting tool for organic food processors.