Prospecção da qualidade nutricional e aplicação tecnológica dos frutos de morangueiro (Fragaria ananassa Duch)

Abstract

Strawberry is one of the crops that have the highest cost of production, mainly due to the acquisition of the seedlings. This has led producers to keep the plants for another season, due to low cost linked to this practice. However, little is known about the impact of this practice on the quality of the fruit. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of the first fruits of strawberry (2013) and second crop (2014) of the same crop, taking into account physical, chemical and nutritional fruit. Later we designed a cheese type Petit Suisse with the cultivar Camarosa showed the highest levels of polar antioxidants. For physical characteristics, size does not difereriu compared ace growing seasons, but the fruits of the first season were more red than the second season, which may be related to the total phenolic content. Regarding the chemical characteristics (pH, soluble solids and titratable acidity), it was observed that the fruit first period had lower pH and higher titratable acidity. These data suggest that sensory consumers may prefer the fruits of the first season. The antioxidant activity (ABTS) and the anthocyanin content of strawberry fruits was higher in the second growing season; and the antioxidant activity (DPPH), phenolic compounds and vitamin C had higher values in the first growing season. These results suggest that depending on the growing season the strawberry fruits have different levels of bioactive substances in its composition, which can act in human nutrition. In preparing the cheese type Petit suisse, we chose to cultivate Camarosa because in both growing seasons this cultivar showed higher content of polar antioxidants (vitamin C, phenolic compounds, anthocyanins and flavonoids) than the other cultivars. In preparing the cheese type Petit Suisse was observed that with the addition of guava pulp microencapsulated the total carotenoid content of the product increased, and with the addition of bean flour was increased-protein value and change in the texture of the cheese. Both ingredients interfere in the pH of the product. With the obtained results it can be stated that the ingredients microencapsulated of guava pulp and bean flour added nutritional value to cheese type Petit suisse, due to the high amount of protein and carotenoids, indicating that these ingredients can be used to manufacture other food products.