Color of dried pears as affected by prior blanching and sugar infusion

MAIDANA, S. B.; VULLIOUD, M. B.; DANIELA M. SALVATORI

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Interim Meeting of the International Color Association; 2010

Grupo Argentino del Color e International Color Association

Sugar infusions and/or blanching have been proposed in combination with air dehydration to improve color attributes of pear dried products. All dried samples showed a decrease in L* values, except for SI pears pretreated at 0.87 water activity (aw) which maintained a lightness similar to that of fresh fruit. An increase in a* values was observed, mainly in dried control samples (C) and those pretreated at 0.97 aw. According to browning index, dried samples pretreated at 0.97 aw developed higher browning than those with SI at 0.87aw, which retained a light color due to the presence of sugars on tissue surface. The more important changes in global color occurred in blanching samples due to the lightness developed. According to these results, an adequate control of blanching and infusion treatments seems to be useful as a tool for improving the colour stability during air drying of pears.