Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XIX
Written by Andreea STAN, Mona Elena POPA
Recently, for increasing fruits shelf life, food industries used thermal processing, which has been shown in some studies to affect the sensorial and physic-chemical properties of these products. During smoothie production is mandatory to have raw materials for the whole year, so it is necessary to storage it after different pretreatments such as freezing. Color, flavor, texture and physic-chemical properties of food products have an important role in correlation with taste, sensory perception and consumer acceptance. These are critical quality attributes affecting the acceptability of fruits, fresh, frozen or processed (concentrates, jam, juice, nectar, syrup, dairy products), thus being of major concern in product design. Strawberries are popular fruit with high visual appeal and desirable flavor, but are highly perishable, being susceptible to mechanical injury, water loss, decay and physiological deterioration. The natural color of strawberries and their products easily fades or deteriorates during processing and storage. The aim of this study is to observe the influence of freezing storage on color, texture, antioxidant activity, vitamin C and physic-chemical properties of strawberry and strawberries puree. For this purpose, were realized and analysed 4 different samples starting with just harvested strawberries, pressed strawberries, strawberries immersed in ascorbic acid 1% for 5 minutes and strawberries blanched at 950C for 5 minutes, before and after freezing. These purees were stored for 6 months in the freezer. During frozen storage the lightness index, L, yellowness index, b and the redness index, a, were also measured and it was observed colour changes for all of strawberry samples. pH and acidity values, showed that the strawberry samples registered insignificant changes compared to standard (control) samples.
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