The impact of proportion of different cut-fruits

on respiration rate of fruit salad

P.V. Mahajan and M.J. Sousa-Gallagher
Department of Process and Chemical Engineering, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.

Abstract
Fresh fruit and vegetables present a unique challenge since these products
continue to respire even after harvesting, resulting in a shelf life which is inversely
proportional to the respiration rate. This study aimed to analyse the respiration
rate
of mixed fresh-cut fruit salad. The experiment was designed according to a simplex
lattice method with three types of fruits (strawberry, pineapple chunks and apple
slices). The total mass fractions of the three fruits in any given mixture was
always
unity. The three products were mixed in varying proportions according to a
simplex
lattice design and the respiration rate was measured at 5°C. The respiration
rate
varied from 4.1 to 16.4 mL of CO2 kg-1 h with a maximum value observed for
strawberry, followed by apple slices and then pineapple chunks. Each individual fruit
had a significant effect on the overall respiration rate of fruit salad. The binary mix of
strawberry and pineapple showed a negative and significant impact whereas the
ternary mix showed a positive impact on the respiration rate of fruit salad. The
simplex lattice model developed, provided a good prediction of respiration rate of
mixed fruit salad and could be applied to any other mixed fruits or vegetables once
the respiration rate of the individual components is known.

Keywords: O2 consumption, CO2 production, packaging, modified atmosphere, fresh-cut

INTRODUCTION
Respiration is the oxidative breakdown of the complex substrates normally present in
the cells, such as carbohydrates, lipids and organic acids, into CO2 and water, with the
simultaneous production of energy. A quantitative description of the respiration rate
of
fresh-cut produce is essential for the design of MAP. The response of the fresh produce
respiration rate to changes in O2 and CO2 concentrations and temperature has been
extensively studied (Fonseca et al., 2002). However, the existing respiration data relates to
whole fruits and vegetables and very little research has been conducted to analyze the effect
of cutting/slicing on respiration rate. Furthermore, while the respiration rate of fresh fruits
and vegetables is widely reported, there is no study on the respiration rate of mixed fresh-
cut fruit salad and analysis of potential synergistic effects of ingredients on the respiration
rate and ethylene production. Lee et al. (1996) reported MAP design of mixed vegetable
salad by combining respiration rate data of the individual components however; there was
no specific study on the effect of the components and their proportion on the respiration
rate of vegetable salad.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of proportions of strawberry,
pineapple chunks and apple slices on the respiration rate of fruit salad. A simplex lattice
design was used in which the total amount of fruits in a given mixture was held constant and
only their relative proportion was varied.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

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Proc. II Int. Conf. on Quality Management of Fresh Cut Produce
Eds.: S. Nicola, P.M.A. Toivonen and C.B. Watkins
 Fruits selected for this study were strawberry (‘Elsanta’), pineapple chunks (‘Del
Monte Gold’) and apple slices (‘Gala’) and were sourced from a local supplier. The simplex
lattice design (Table 1) consists of total 14 experimental runs where three were single
products (one for each fruit), other six with binary mixture for each possible two-
component and the others with complete mixtures (all three fruits). Component proportions

Acta Hortic. 1209. ISHS 2018. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2018.1209.53 359

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Proc. II Int. Conf. on Quality Management of Fresh Cut Produce
Eds.: S. Nicola, P.M.A. Toivonen and C.B. Watkins
were expressed as fractions of the mixture with a sum of one.

Table 1. Layout of simplex lattice design for strawberry (S), pineapple chunks (P) and apple
slices (A).
Mass fractions of fruits used in 14 different experimental runs
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
S 1 0 0 0.333 0.333 0 0.667 0.667 0 0.333 0.667 0.167 0.167 0.333
P 0 1 0 0.667 0 0.333 0.333 0 0.667 0.333 0.167 0.667 0.167 0.333
A 0 0 1 0 0.667 0.667 0 0.333 0.333 0.333 0.167 0.167 0.667 0.333

The respiration rate of mixed fruits was measured using the closed system method
(Iqbal et al., 2008). Three hundred g of mixed fruits from each experimental run (Table 1)
were put into airtight glass jars (a total 14), the lid was closed and the jars were made
airtight. The jars were placed in the temperature control room set at 5°C. The gas
composition (O2, CO2) was monitored over time with a CO2/O2 gas analyzer (PBI Dansensor,
Checkmate 9900). The experiment was conducted until CO2 reached to a level of 2.5%.
Respiration rate (RCO2) was measured by the difference in CO2 concentration at different
time intervals, using Equation 1:

i R CO W
yCO2 = yCO2 +
2
(t − t i) (1)
Vf

i
where y CO2 , and yCO2 are, respectively, the CO2 concentration (volumetric fraction) in the gas
mix at the initial time ti (h) and at time t (h). Rco2 is respiration rate in mL kg-1 h and W is the
total weight of the product (kg) in a given mix of salad and Vf is the free volume inside the
glass jar (mL). The entire set of experiments was replicated twice. Experimental data was
analysed using Statistica software (Statistica 7.0, Statsoft, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The respiration rate of mixed fruits was estimated by fitting Equation 1 to the
experimental data obtained at each set of proportion tested. Respiration rate varied from 4.1
to 16.4 ml of CO2 kg-1 h at 5°C with a maximum value observed for strawberry, followed
by apple slices and then pineapple chunks. Their respective average value was 15.3, 7.3 and
4.5
mL of CO2 kg-1 h which were similar to those reported by various authors (Lakakul et al.,
1999; Geysen et al., 2005; Marrero and Kader, 2006). The respiration quotient (RQ =
RCO2/RO2) ranged from 1.1 to 1.8 but did not show any relationship with different
proportions of fruits in a mixture.
The effect of different proportions on respiration rate of mixed fruits was evaluated
using a Pareto analysis at a 95% significance level (Figure 1). This analysis showed that
strawberry (S), apple (A) and pineapple (P), were in this order, the most influential
variables; interactive effects between S×P and S×P×A were also significant. The binary
products S×P showed a negative impact on respiration rate whereas the ternary mixture
S×P×A showed a positive impact on the respiration rate of fruit salad. In relation to the
single products, strawberry produced highest respiration rate, followed by apple slices and
then pineapple chunks. Apple slices and pineapple chunks have binary synergistic effects,
that is, their binary mixture produced higher respiration rate values than would be expected
by simply averaging the respiration values of single products. Strawberry and pineapple
chunks, and also strawberry and apple slices when mixed together produced respiration rate
which was lower than the average of the two single products. All three components have
ternary synergistic effect in simplex lattice model (Figure 2), that is, their ternary mixture
produced higher respiration rate values than simply averaging the values of single products.

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Proc. II Int. Conf. on Quality Management of Fresh Cut Produce
Eds.: S. Nicola, P.M.A. Toivonen and C.B. Watkins
Figure 1. Standardised Pareto chart for the estimated effects for respiration rate. The
dashed vertical line corresponds to the 95% confidence limits.

Figure 2. Ternary contour and surface plots showing the effect of proportion of
components in fruit salad on overall respiration rate using simplex lattice model.

Respiration rate (RCO2) values for each of the fourteen mixtures were used to fit the
simplex lattice model, as shown in Equation 2. This equation differs from the straight line
model because it does not contain constant term i.e., intercept equal to zero (Cornell, 1981).

R CO2 = β1 S + β2 P + β3 A (2)

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 Equation 2 was substituted into Equation 1 so that the model constants could be
estimated directly from the experimental data i.e., changes in CO2 concentration with time.
The correlation of the experimental data to those predicted by the simplex lattice model was

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good (R2 adj = 92.83%) thus proving that the model was useful for predicting the respiration
rate of mixed fresh-cut fruits. It is worth noting that the magnitude of the constants β1, β2
and β3 was close to the respiration rate of individual components as determined from first
three runs of simplex lattice design (Table 2). The constants shown in Table 2 were then
used to predict the respiration rate of each of the 14 mixtures and those were then
compared with experimentally obtained respiration rates (Figure 3). The results showed
that the simplex lattice model correlated closely with the actual experimental values proving
that the model provided a good prediction of the respiration rate of mixed fruit salad. Also
this model could be used to predict the respiration rate of mixed fruits or vegetables once
the respiration rate of individual component is known.

Table 2. Experimental respiration rate (RCO2) and coefficients of simplex lattice model
(Equation 2) describing the effect of proportion of strawberry, pineapple chunks
and apple slices on respiration rate of fruit salad.
Type of fruit RCO2 (mL kg-1 h-1) Coefficients of simplex lattice model
Strawberry (S) 15.31±1.49 15.37 (β1)
Pineapple chunks (P) 4.51±0.52 5.31 (β2)
Apple slices (A) 7.29±0.31 8.63 (β3)
R2 adj 92.83

Figure 3. Respiration rate obtained for different combinations of fresh-cut fruits at 5°C (x-
axis indicate the mass fractions of different fruits in a given mix).

CONCLUSIONS
The simplex lattice was a suitable design to study the effect of changing the
proportions of three cut-fruits in a mixture. It provided the advantage of changing the
quantity of individual ingredients while keeping the total mass of the fruit salad constant.
The proportion of strawberry in the mixture had a more significant effect on overall
respiration rate of fruit salad. This was followed by sliced apple and pineapple chunks. The
simplex lattice model was found to be suitable for describing the influence of proportion of
fruits on respiration rate of mixed fruit salad.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Irish Government, under the
National Development Plan, through the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM
08/R&D-UL/661) managed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development,
Ireland.

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