engleski

Textural Properties of High Hydrostatic Pressure Processed Vegetable Based Products

High pressure processing is expanding technology in the food industry, especially in production of juices, meat and vegetable based products. In the production of vegetable based products, main use of this technology is to substitute thermal pasteurization and preserve nutritional and sensory properties of fresh vegetables, while prolonging shelf life. Due to extreme hydrostatic pressures of up to 1200 MPa, this kind of method may lead to quality loss in structural, textural and sensory characteristics of final products. Aim of this research is to analyze most important mechanical properties of some brined vegetable products (pickled cucumbers, bell peppers and cauliflower) before and after pasteurizing using standard thermal processing or high pressure processing (100 – 600 MPa, 7 min). Hardness, elasticity, adhesivity and chewiness were chosen as key factors which have influence on consumer perception of texture. The results showed that hardness of samples slightly but with statistical significance decrease with increase in pressure (up to 8, 5 %). There is also increase in elasticity (up to 11 %), measured using both selected methods. Work and chewiness are practically unchanged for all samples processed using high pressures. However, thermally processed samples show significant increase in hardness and decrease in elasticity, possibly due to water loss, physical and chemical changes during processing. This also led to changes in chewiness. When compared with results obtained for fresh samples, it is evident that high pressure processing products have considerably better texture than thermally processed ones.

high hydrostatic pressure; textural analysis; vegetables

nije evidentirano