RESPIRATION RATE OF RED DELICIOUS APPLES UNDER AEROBIC CONDITIONS. INFLUENCE OF STORAGE TEMPERATURE

MARIELA ACOSTA; DANIEL RICARDO ERCOLI; GRACIELA SUSANA GOIZUETA; NUMA CAPIATI; JORGE LOZANO

Ankara

Congreso; 1st International Congress on Food Technology; 2010

Assotiation of Food Technology - Turkey & Akdeniz University

The reliable measurement of respiration rate of fresh produce is the underlying aspect in designing a good and accurate modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) system. Nevertheless, respiration rate is dependent on factors like temperature and gas composition of the storage atmosphere, so it is of great importance to find a mathematical approach to predict respiration rate under given conditions. In this work, mathematical models based on regression analysis and enzyme kinetics were developed using respiration data generated at different storage temperatures for Red Delicious apples using the closed system method. In the enzyme kinetic based model, dependence of respiration rate on O2 and CO2 was found to follow the uncompetitive inhibition mechanism. Due to the stiffness of this model to incorporate the temperature term, the parameters obtained for fresh whole apple were then correlated using the Arrhenius equation. Both models were validated at 10 ºC. Respiration rate of apple predicted by these models were in good agreement with experimental results.