Abstract
Green-ripe pineapples are shipped overseas by sea freight, while those picked at full maturity need to be transported by airfreight over the same large distance. In this study, fresh-cut pineapple cubes were assessed two, five, and eight days after processing from green-ripe pineapples after mimicked sea freigh (SF) and fully ripe air-freighted (AF) pineapples. The sea-freighted samples displayed elevated titratable acidity (TA), thus resulting in smaller ratios of total soluble solids and TA compared to the AF pineapples. Differences in the carotenoid levels of the two fresh-cut categories were found to be insignificant. By contrast, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) calculated on the basis of the volatiles analysed by headspace solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME–GC–MS) permitted to distinguish all six individual sample types and to segregate them into two major clusters (SF and AF). The effect of storage on the volatiles was further evaluated by partial least squares (PLS) regression. Substantial chemical markers to differentiate the individual samples and to describe the effect of storage were deduced from the PCA and PLS regression, respectively. In general, fresh-cut products obtained from fully ripe AF fruit displayed higher concentrations of volatiles, in particular, increased concentrations of diverse methyl esters. With progressing storage duration, the concentrations of ethanol and diverse ethyl esters increased. Moreover, products from AF pineapples displayed lower microbial counts compared to those from SF fruit.
Highlights
Owing to their exotic flavour, consumers in Europe and North America highly appreciate tropical fruits and products derived thereof
By contrast, processing fully ripe pineapples resulted in lower total plate as well as yeast and mould counts compared to samples from green-ripe fruit stored for 14 days prior to processing
Processing fully ripe pineapples immediately after harvest may be recommended for fresh-cut processors targeting the premium market rather than using sea-freighted fruit
Summary
Owing to their exotic flavour, consumers in Europe and North America highly appreciate tropical fruits and products derived thereof. The first is based on harvesting fully ripe fruit, which are processed in close proximity to their production sites and immediately exported by rapid airfreight [1]. The German and Britain markets are majorly supplied with this premium niche product by two major companies airfreighting fresh-cut fruits from Ghana to Europe [2]. The second chain is based on harvesting early green-ripe pineapples having an extended shelf life under chilled conditions, which permits their transport for multiple weeks by cargo ships. The major proportion of these sea-freighted pineapples is sold on the fresh fruit market. With regard to fresh-cut product manufacture, processing facilities located, e.g., in Europe and North America mostly rely on such sea-freighted fruit
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