บทคัดย่องานวิจัย

หมวดหมู่ : ฐานข้อมูลงานวิจัย

Biochemical effects on fresh-cut fruit quality.

Lamikanra O., Watson M.A., Bett-Garber K.L, Ingram D.

5th International Postharvest Symposium . Volume of Abstract . Verona, Italy 6-11 June 2004. page 24

2004

บทคัดย่อ

Biochemical effects on fresh-cut fruit quality.    Fresh-cut produce is the fastest growing food category in the supermarket.Most of the increase in sales has been in cut-vegetables.A factor that limits the development of the fresh-cut fruit industry is the rapid decrease in product quality caused by physiological and biochemical changes that accompany processing and storage.Our research objective is to identify these changes and to develop processing and handling methods that improve cut fruit storage quality.

We have: (1) established a number of biochemical and microbial base line information for cut fruit.This includes the relationship between storage conditions and quality parameters such as sugars, amino acids, organic acids and microorganism growth.Production of lactic/Garm (+ve) bacteria appears to be a useful indicator of temperature abuse during storage; (2) utilized a rapid, solid phase micro-extraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME GC-MS) method developed to determine the nature of phytoalexins in fresh-cut fruit.UV simulated biological stress caused significant reduction in aliphatic ester compounds concurrently with production of phytoalexin terpene and sesquiterpene compounds; (3) demonstrated that wound-stress induced loss of volatile esters is a contributing factor to loss of freshness that occurs during refrigerated storage of cut fruit; (4) demonstrated the ascorbate nature of peroxidase in most fresh-cut processed fruits.This defined the role of the enzymes as wound oxidative stress induced and facilitated studies of oxidative stress as indicators of potential product shelf life; (5) defined roles of key enzymes (esterase, pectin methyl esterase, and lipase) that affect fresh-cut fruit shelf life.These are being used to assess the effects of processing methods and treatments o­n product shelf life; (6) established the beneficial effect of mild heat treatment o­n fresh-cut fruit sensory quality and shelf life.This research will be reviewed and discussed.