Effect of natural antimicrobials and sensorial quality of fresh-cut cantaloupe melon
Gláucia C. Moreira, Ana C. Silveira, Encarna Aguayo, Rogério L. Vieites and Francisco Artés
Abstracts Book, 6th International Postharvest symposium, 8-12 April 2009, Antalya, Turkey. 256 pages.
2009
บทคัดย่อ
The possibility of future restrictions on the use of chlorine, associated with new trends in the preservation of food, leads the search for alternative treatments in fresh-cut fruits. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of different natural antimicrobials on the microbiological and sensorial quality of fresh-cut Cantaloupe melons. Melons were peeled and cut into trapezoidal sections. Pieces were washed for 1 min at 5°C in water (control), vanillin (1000 mg/L and 2000 mg/L) or cinnamic acid (148.16 mg/L and 296.32 mg/L). These washed pieces were packaged into polypropylene (PP) trays and heat-sealed with oriented polypropylene film. Other antimicrobial treatments consisted of packaging the pieces of melon with an antimicrobial pad which contained vapour of cinnamic acid (148.16 mg/Land 296.32 mg/L). These pads were inside the trays for all the storage time. All treatments were stored up to 10 days at 5°C. On days 0, 3, 6 and 10, three replicates were evaluated for each treatment. The parameters evaluated were: microbial growth and sensory evaluation. After 10 days of storage at 5°C, significative differences among antimicrobials treatments and water treatment were found. In water treatment, psychrotrophs reached 3.63±0.09 log cfu g-l while on all antimicrobial treatments the values ranged from 3.04±0.13 log cfu g g-l and 3.28±0.1 log cfu g-l. Mesophilic growth in the water treatment averaged 6.79±0.06 log cfu g-l while on antimicrobial treatments the counts were from 5.15±0.01 log cfu g-l to 5.30±0.03 log cfu g-l. Total coliform levels were 7.8±0.1 log cfu g-l when melon was washed in water, followed by washing with cinnamon (296.32 mg/L) at 6.5 log cfu g-l and for the rest of the treatments were around 5.5 log cfu g-l. The treatments did not display differences among mold and yeast growth after 10 days of storage, and all values of about 2.4 to 2.6 log cfu g-l, respectively. The sensorial quality decreased throughout storage. However, at the end of storage, the scores ranged between 6.5 and 7, above the minimum level for marketability (level 5). Sensorial panelist noted a sweet taste when vanillin was used as sanitizer. The use of natural antimicrobials added in water or using a pad inside the tray helped to reduce the microbiological quality in fresh-cut Cantaloupe melon compared to control.