Department of Post Harvest Technology, College of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara-680 656, Kerala, India.
*Corresponding Author: Saji Gomez, Department of Post Harvest Technology, College of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara-680 656, Kerala, India, Email: saji.gomez@kau.in
Online Published on 06 January, 2023.
Pineapple is produced round the year in the tropics and therefore, market gluts are very common and post harvest losses of around 20–30% are reported. Intermediate Moisture Fruits (IMF) have a water activity ranging between 0.65–0.90 and moisture content of 15–40%. Hence, the present study was undertaken to develop intermediate moisture fruit slices by evaluating the effect of various osmotic agents and pineapple varieties on the physico-chemical and organoleptic qualities of the product.
Pineapple varieties ‘Mauritius’, ‘Kew’ and ‘MD-2’ were selected for the study. Fruit slices were steam blanched, followed by immersion in osmotic solutions (fruit: solution ratio of 1: 4), containing six different osmotic agents viz. sucrose, sucrose+sorbitol, glucose syrup, sucrose+NaCl, palm sugar and honey separately, in combination with 0.5% ascorbic acid and 0.25% potassium metabisulphite, for six hours and were subsequently dehydrated at 500C in a tray dryer.
Moisture content varied between 19.42 and 29.71% and water activity values in between 0.60 and 0.73. Decline in L* and b* values with a corresponding increase in a* value was observed in IM slices. Intermediate moisture pineapple slices had ascorbic acid content in the range of 17.64 to 200 mg 100 g−1.
Intermediate moisture (IM) pineapple, Organoleptic, Physico-chemical
