Preservation of fresh-cut Rocha Pear using Codium tomentosum extract

Rocha is a Portuguese pear cultivar with high economic importance in the Portuguese Western Region. Degradative processes following its manipulation can quickly lead to product rejection, especially when sold as a freshcut product. The efficacy of a marine-based edible coating to inhibit superficial browning development in freshcut Rocha pear slices was investigated over a storage period of 15 days. The aqueous extract of Codium tomentosum, an edible green seaweed, was incorporated in an edible coating (0.5 g 100 mL -1) for fresh-cut Rocha pear. This novel treatment effect on the quality parameters of the pears was compared with a commercial coating currently used by industry and a control (dipping in deionised water). After 15 days storage at 4 ◦C, samples treated with the seaweed extract exhibited fewer colour changes and lower rates of superficial browning than control and commercial samples. Seaweed extract treatment was also observed to inhibit yeast and mould development, which may further contribute to shelf-life extension.

Description

Acknowledgements : The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through the strategic project UIDB/04292/2020 granted to MARE, and the grants awarded to Ana Augusto (SFRH/BD/131465/2017) and Andreia Miranda (SFRH\BD\145425\2019). The authors also wish to acknowledge the support of the project Alagecoat (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-006392) through the COMPETE Operational Competitiveness Programme, the European Union through EASME Blue Labs project AMALIA, Algae-to-MArket Lab IdeAs (EASME/EMFF/2016/1.2.1.4/03/SI2.750419) and to the ORCHESTRA projectadd-value to ORCHards through thE full valoriSaTion of macRoalgAe (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-070155), co-funded by FEDER- European Regional Development Fund, within Portugal 2020 Programme, through COMPETE 2020 Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização and national funds through FCT.

Keywords

Edible seaweed Fresh-cut fruit Superficial browning Fruit preservation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/6465

Citation

Ana Augusto, Andreia Miranda, Daniel Crespo, Maria J. Campos, Délio Raimundo, Rui Pedrosa, Geoffrey Mitchell, Keshavan Niranjan, Susana F.J. Silva, Preservation of fresh-cut Rocha Pear using Codium tomentosum extract, LWT, Volume 155, 2022, 112938, ISSN 0023-6438, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.112938