88E-16 |
The effect of various processing treatments on the quality and nutrition of apple cider |
L. H. CHOI and S. S. Nielsen. Department of Food Science, Purdue University, 1160 Food Science Building, West Lafayette, IN 47907 Outbreaks of pathogens in minimally processed foods have become an increased concern. To reduce the potential of endangering human health, the FDA mandated, in 1998, a 5-log reduction of pathogenic organisms in fruit and vegetable juice products. The most common method utilizes thermal pasteurization. However, pasteurization increases product costs and may lower nutrition, quality, and consumer acceptability of apple cider. Many non-thermal methods have been studied to produce the needed 5-log pathogen reduction in apple cider. However, there has been no comparison of the quality and nutrition of apple cider processed by non-thermal methods vs. conventional unpasteurized or pasteurized cider. Our objective was to determine the effect of pasteurization and ozone treatment on the quality and nutrition of apple cider. A batch of cider was divided into three parts; two parts were treated with heat or ozone to achieve the 5-log reduction; one part served as the control. The three cider samples were stored at 4° C and analyzed for quality and nutritional parameters at day 1, 7, and 15. Quality and nutrition tests included pH, titratable acidity, ºBrix, turbidity, sedimentation color, vitamin C, glucose, fructose, and sucrose contents. There was no significant difference found between the treatments for sedimentation, vitamin C, fructose, and sucrose. The pasteurized cider was significantly different from the control and ozone-treated samples for pH, titratable acidity, ºBrix, turbidity, color, and glucose content. There was also a significant effect of time for all treatments for pH, turbidity, color, and sugars content. A significant time and treatment interaction was seen in all treatments for pH, ºBrix, color, and glucose content. The results suggest that application of thermal pasteurization significantly changes the quality of apple cider. Non-thermal methods, such as ozonation, can meet the mandatory 5-log reduction while keeping quality similar to that of untreated cider.
Session 88E, Fruit & Vegetable Products: Processing
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