Utilização de ácido cinâmico na conservação de abacaxi minimamente processado

Abstract

The fresh cut vegetables consists in submit vegetables to one or more physical modifications as washing, peeling, slicing and cutting, and sometimes to chemical treatments, making them appropriate to immediate consumption or preparing. After being processed, products must have quality attributes, keeping most of their characteristics and quality. The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of cinnamic acid on the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of fresh cut pineapple. After processing, fruits were immersed in the following treatments: water (control) and at doses of 50, 100, 150 and 200 mg·L-1 of cinnamic acid. After that the samples were placed in polystyrene extended trays involved by polyethylene film and stored at 5 ºC during 10 days. Microbiological analyses of mesophiles, psychrophiles, yeasts and total coliforms were performed at days 0, 3, 6 and 10 of storage and physical chemical analyses of loss of fresh mass, pH, soluble solids content (°Brix) and titratable acidity were performed on days 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 e 10 of storage. The data were submitted to analysis of variance and the means were compared using Tukey test at 5 % of probability. The cinnamic acid doses applied had positive effect on the maintaining quality and on decreasing microbiological contamination of fresh cut pineapples, being the doses of 50, 150 and 200 mg·L-1 of cinnamic acid the most appropriated for the purposes of these experiments.