Thermal inactivation of peroxidase during blanching of butternut squash

AGÜERO MARÍA VICTORIA; ANSORENA MARÍA ROBERTA; ROURA SARA INES; DEL VALLE CARLOS E

LEBENSMITTEL-WISSENSCHAFT UND-TECHNOLOGIE-FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Elsevier

Año: 2008 vol. 41 p. 401 - 407

0023-6438

The kinetics of thermal inactivation of peroxidase in butternut squash during water blanching was studied. Thin slices of squash were immersed in water at 60?90ºC for 0?60 min. For treatments below 70ºC, a biphasic, first-order kinetics model was proposed for peroxidase inactivation that would correspond to heat-labile and heat-resistant fractions of the enzyme. Parameters of the first-order model for the heat-labile and heat-resistant fractions were kL,ref = 24.8733 min-1, EaL = 14023 J/mol and kR,ref = 0.0729 min-1, EaR =15794 J/mol, respectively. For treatments above 70ºC, a monophasic first-order kinetics model was proposed. Parameters were kref = 8.6425 min-1, Ea = 149900 J/mol. Decreases in ascorbic acid contents due to blanching were analyzed. Blanching processes at high temperature and short time resulted in higher ascorbic acid retention. A linear relationship between ascorbic acid retention and processing temperature was found.