Study of the storage conditions on quality parameters of salted wakame

SOLANA, VALERIA; TOMAS, MABEL; IXTAINA, VANESA; DELLATORRE, FERNANDO GASPAR

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 11th WORLD CONGRESS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING; 2023

UCA Argentina

The factors that affect the quality of food during its storage can be intrinsic and extrinsic, the latter being the ones that the product faces during its storage: temperature, humidity, exposure to light, microbial load of the environment and composition of the atmosphere inside the package [1]. For the industrial production of wakame, an edible product obtained from the seaweed Undaria pinnatifida, it is necessary to determine the storage conditions through which the quality and shelf life of the product are maximized. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different storage conditions of salted wakame (temperature, packaging atmosphere, time) on the quality of the final product. A multifactorial design was carried out, evaluating the effect of storage time and atmosphere on the color and texture of wakame stored at 3 temperatures (3 ±0.5, -18 ±0.5 and -25 ±1 °C). The wakame obtained according to Yamanaka and Akiyama [2] was divided into 9 parts and stored in innocuous and airtight containers consisting of 90 µm high-density polyethylene bags, heat-sealed, under 3 different atmospheres: vacuum, air, or nitrogen. Subsequently, each of the samples was stored at different temperatures for one year, and periodically the texture (hardness) and the color parameters were determined. In addition, the total aerobic microorganism count was performed. The results were analyzed separately for each storage temperature. The color parameter a* shows a predominant trend of increase as a function of storage time in all treatments. This trend was more evident at 3 °C for both the pinnae and the interpinnae. In contrast, at temperatures below zero (-18 and -25 °C) marked decreases in this parameter were observed after 180 days, especially in the pinna. No significant differences were recorded between atmospheres at any of the temperatures tested for a*. The color parameter L* showed a significant increase at temperatures below zero, both in the pinna and in the interpinna after 180 days of storage. At -25 °C, L* registered a significant interaction by strongly decreasing in the samples preserved under vacuum while slightly increasing with storage in air and nitrogen atmosphere. The b* parameter did not show a clear trend or significant variations over time, at different temperatures or packaging atmospheres. Wakame texture was higher at the interpinna than at the pinna. The results obtained indicate a tendency to decrease with storage time. In the pinna this trend is somewhat more gradual, while in the interpinna it occurs mainly after 60 days at 3°C or 180 days in frozen storage. Microbiological analyzes of wakame preserved at different temperatures, times and type of atmosphere did not detect colony-forming units of total aerobic bacteria in any of the samples (NDUFC/cm2) studied.