Innovative Process Coupling Short Steam Blanching with Vacuum Flash-Expansion Produces in One Single Stage High-Quality Purple Passion Fruit Smoothies.

Claudia Arias,Misael Cortés,Pablo Rodríguez,Julián Quintero,Iris Soto,Fabrice Vaillant

doi:10.3390/foods11060832

Abstract

Short steam blanching coupled with flash-vacuum expansion (FVE) and de-pulping was used to obtain purée from purple passion fruits discarded from the export chain. Different steam blanching holding times (80, 95, 110 s) were tested at pressure of 130 kPa. After FVE and vacuum de-pulping, fibers, anthocyanins, carotenoids, rheological properties, and microbial reduction were evaluated in the purées. Fruit purées are obtained with a much higher content of cell-wall and bioactive compounds compared to the fresh arils since part of the fruit shell is incorporated into the purée (approximately 20%), which greatly increases the yield of production. Purées exhibited increasing shear-thinning flow behavior with blanching holding time, resulting in a smoothie-like beverage. A reduction greater than 5 log10 CFU/mL was obtained for molds, yeasts, aerobic mesophilic, and coliforms for all the treatments. The shelf life of smoothies based on nutritional and sensorial quality was extended up to 90 days at refrigeration temperature.

Highlights

The purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis sims f. edulis) (PPF) is characterized compared to the yellow variety, by its smooth, thick, and purple shell
The study demonstrates that short steam blanching (80, 95, and 110 s) coupled to flashvacuum expansion (FVE) and vacuum de-pulping process increases the yield production of PPF purée at least twice due to the incorporation of a part of the exocarp
The disruption of the fruit cellular tissue of the shell due to the effect of the flash-vacuum expansion (FVE) process increases the content of bioactive compounds such as anthocyanins

Summary

Introduction

The purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis sims f. edulis) (PPF) is characterized compared to the yellow variety, by its smooth, thick, and purple shell. Edulis) (PPF) is characterized compared to the yellow variety, by its smooth, thick, and purple shell. The anthocyanins present in the shell of the purple passion fruit are destroyed following a logarithmic curve when the temperature increases arithmetically [3]. The main bottleneck for the development of small- and medium-sized agro-food enterprises (SMEs) is the limited supply of appropriate small- and medium-scale technologies to produce very high-quality food products. For this reason, it is important to explore new technologies, to foster greater inclusion of rural agro-food industries while taking into account the growing consumer demand, more focused on quality

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