Pedro Antunes

Determinação das constantes cinéticas de degradação do ácido ascórbico em purê de pêssego: efeito da temperatura e concentração

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is extensively used in the food industry, not only for its nutritional value, but also for its many functional contributions to product quality. There have been many studies on the stability of ascorbic acid in different beverages, but no study was found on the reaction rate constants for ascorbic acid degradation in peach puree. In this work, the degradation of ascorbic acid in Jade peach puree was studied in anaerobic conditions and from 70-90 °C. The peach puree concentrations tested were 12, 22 and 32 °Brix. The kinetic analysis of the data suggests that the degradation was significantly represented by zero and first-order kinetic models. The rate of ascorbic acid degradation in peach puree was temperature dependent. The average activation energy was 45 kJ.mol-1 and independent of the concentration of soluble solids.

Manejo do resfriamento e da classificação de pêssegos cv granada na ocorrência de podridões e qualidade de consumo

The loss of quality in peach after harvest is associated with metabolic changes, wounding, loss of pulp firmness, physiological disorders and decay. In the Granada cultivar, decay is the most important determinant of storage-life. Aiming to prevent this problem, different procedures of postharvest handling were tested in two experiments: 1) harvest, pre-cooling, cooled transportation and storage at 23±2°C and 75%±5% relative humidity (RH), 2) harvest, pre-cooling, cold storage for 15 days, classification in equipment with or without water to transport the fruit, with or without application of wax coating on fruit, cooled transportation, and storage at 23±2°C and 60-75% RH. In both experiments, we evaluated: fruit decay, colour, pulp firmness and general acceptability. Decay was lower in pre-cooled peach than in not pre-cooled peach before cooled transportation. The classification, in equipment with water, favoured decay occurrence, in comparison to the classification in equipment without water, if the shelf life exceeds three days. The wax treatment in equipment without water improved the appearance of the fruit and contributed to prevent decay.