Influence of the type of packaging on textural properties of minimally processed yellow Peruvian roots

Lara Santana Fernandes,Paulo Roberto Cecon,Mateus Da Silva Junqueira,Paulo Cesar Corrêa,Fernando Luiz Finger

doi:10.1590/0034-737x201663030003

Lara Santana Fernandes, Paulo Roberto Cecon + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-737x201663030003

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Abstract

ABSTRACT The textural properties of minimally processed products indicate its quality, and the package is fundamental to maintain the conservation of these foods. The aim of this study was to evaluate texture alterations that occur during the storage period of minimally processed yellow Peruvian roots, using texture profile analysis (TPA) and relaxation, in function of four types of plastic packaging, combined to refrigeration. The roots were selected, sanitized, peeled and sliced. The processing continued with final sanitization, rinsing and immersion in ascorbic and citric acid solution. The slices were centrifuged and packed in expanded polystyrene trays covered with PVC film, and in high-density polyethylene bags (HDPE), polypropylene bags (PP) and multilayer polyolefin bags for vacuum, and stored at 5 ± 2 ºC and 90 ± 5% relative humidity during 12 days. For the TPA, the parameters of interest were hardness and adhesiveness, automatically calculated from the force curves (F) x time (s). For modeling the relaxation process, the generalized Maxwell model was used. The slices packed in PP and vacuum showed higher hardness and normalized force in the balance (0.7502 and 0.7580, respectively), indicating that they were more elastic, better preserving the quality during storage than slices packed in other packaging.

Highlights

For fruits and vegetables consumed in natura, texture and color are the most important quality attributes for market value definition (Liu et al, 2009).Factors that affect texture can substantially change after harvest, due to intercellular adhesion change, conversion of starch into sugars, loss of water and cellular wall force (Toivonen & Brummel, 2008)
Food texture can be measured by physical tests: punching, penetration, compression, shearing and relaxation, allowing the gathering of data related to consistency and resistance of vegetable tissues by the application of any force and the specific deformation or total test time (Bourne, 2003)
Water excess was removed by centrifugation at 2000 rpm for s and the slices were conditioned in the following packaging types: expanded polystyrene trays covered with μm-thick polyvinylchloride (PVC) film; 10 μm-thick high density polyethylene (HDPE) packaging bags; 20 μmthick polypropylene (PP) packaging bags and 70 μm-thick multilayer polyolefin vacuum bags

Summary

Introduction

For fruits and vegetables consumed in natura, texture and color are the most important quality attributes for market value definition (Liu et al, 2009).Factors that affect texture can substantially change after harvest, due to intercellular adhesion change, conversion of starch into sugars, loss of water and cellular wall force (Toivonen & Brummel, 2008). Food texture can be measured by physical tests: punching, penetration, compression, shearing and relaxation, allowing the gathering of data related to consistency and resistance of vegetable tissues by the application of any force and the specific deformation or total test time (Bourne, 2003). Relaxation is an important test for food texture evaluation, usually used for the study of the viscoelastic behavior of biological materials (Cespi et al, 2007), and the modeling of a mathematical instrument is basic for analysis of this behavior (Del Nobile et al, 2007; Fustier et al, 2009). According to Resende & Corrêa (2007), specific models can satisfactorily describe the variation of rheological parameters during food ripening, providing practical texture rates, and underlying characteristics to processes that occur during storage

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