COLOR AND BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS CHARACTERISTICS ON DEHYDRATED SWEET CHERRY PRODUCTS

FRANCESCHINIS, LORENA E.; SETTE, PAULA A.; SCHEBOR, CAROLINA; SALVATORI, DANIELA

FOOD AND BIOPROCESS TECHNOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2015 vol. 8 p. 1716 - 1729

1935-5130

It is widely known that quality properties of fruits can be affected by drying processing. The effect of different pretreatments and dehydration methods on color, bioactive compounds and antiradical power of two products (discs and dices) obtained from sweet cherries was analyzed. In general, both discs and dices, achieved a yellowish shade upon dehydration, in agreement with the observed anthocyanin degradation. Total anthocyanin and phenolic content was higher in freeze-dried fruits; however, sugar infusion pretreatment caused an important decrease in both compounds and antiradical power. In discs, blanching pretreatment allowed to preserve the phenolic content, reaching values even higher than those obtained in fresh sweet cherry. When blanching was combined with freeze-drying, discs with higher quality in terms of the superficial color were obtained. On the other hand, when blanching was applied prior to air-drying, samples presented the highest antiradical power, similar to that observed in fresh fruit. In dices, the best quality attributes were found in control freeze-dried samples, since they presented minor shifts in hue angle, a greater preservation of anthocyanin pigments, the lowest percentage of polymeric color and a lower browning index. Better quality products were obtained from dices geometry.