TOPIC: Minimal Processing of Fruits

NAME: AHMED RAZA

RED NO: FDST18111063
SECTION: 4A
DEPARTMENT: FOOD SCIENCE& TECHNOLOGY
SUMBMITED To: DR. TARIQ MEHMOOD

Minimal Processing of Fruits

Minimal processed operation have been define as those procedure such as washing, sorting,
trimming, slicing Chopping, anti-oxidants treatment and packing etc. that do not affect the
fresh like quality of fruits. Minimal processing of fruits and vegetables generally involves
washing, peeling, slicing, or shredding before packaging and storage at low temperature. All
these steps have an effect on the nutrients, shelf life, and quality of the prepared product.
Minimal processing of raw fruits has two purposes.
 First, it is important to keep the product fresh, but convenient without losing its
nutritional quality.
 Second, the product should have a shelf life sufficient enough to make distribution
feasible within the region of consumption. The microbiological, sensory, and
nutritional shelf life of minimally processed fruits should be at least 5–7days.
Physiological Responses and Biochemical Changes:
Fruits are living organisms that continue to change after harvest. Plant tissues incur damage
during processing and in addition remain raw and living after processing. The physiology of
minimally processed fruits is essentially the physiology of wounded tissue. This type of
processing, involving abrasion, peeling, slicing, chopping, or shredding, differs from
traditional thermal processing in that the tissue remains viable “fresh” during subsequently
handling. Thus, the behavior of the tissue is generally typical of that observed in plant tissues
that have been wounded or exposed to stress conditions. Within minutes of under minimal
processing of fresh produce, the rate of respiration and ethylene production markedly
increase, and essentially a“wound response”is initiated. Both respiration and ethylene
production will result in shorter shelf life of the product. The ethylene will accelerate
ripening, softening, and senescence, which leads to membrane damage, while the respiration
will use up energy reserves. Other consequences of wounding are chemical and physical in
nature, such as oxidative browning reactions and lipid oxidation or enhanced water loss.
Injury stresses caused by minimal processing result in mechanical rupture of tissues and
cellular decompartmentation leading to delocalization and intermixing of enzymes and
substrates. One such enzyme system is the ascorbic acid oxidase that oxidizes ascorbic acid
to dehydro ascorbic acid, which can then further degrade too the compounds leading to
browning. Thus nutritional quality such as vitamin C is lost.
As fruits are living products with active respiration even after harvesting, it is possible to
classify the minimal process technologies used for processing of fruits and fruit products:
1. minimal processing technologies with active respiration of fruits and its products.
2. minimal processing technologies for processed fruit products that destroy the
respiratory activities of fruits during processing. The basic concept of preservation
systems and methods used in preservation or minimal processing. Therefore, in this
short chapter, we would like to discuss only the MAP of fresh fruits and fruit products,
covering theories, concepts, and practices.
Principles of MAP of Minimally
Fresh fruits continueto respire after harvesting. This means that the carbohydrate content of
the fruits as the substrate of respiration will be involved in the oxidation process. The
products will be CO2, water, and, of course, energy that appears as heat production. The rate
of respiration is highly affected by a temperature involving Arrheniuskinetics(Q10 values
areabout2–3),and as balanced reaction it is affected by the concentration of O2 and CO2. The
Q10 means how many times the respiration rate changes if temperature increases by 10◦C.
The value of it serves information about the temperature sensitivity of fruit
metabolismlikerespiration.Q10 values are of order of 3 for chemical reactions. The O2
involved in theoxidationofNADH+ andFADH+determinesthe direction of the pathway. The
CO2 level affects the activity of the enzyme ecarboxylase responsible for the
decarboxylation process of the organic acids in Krebscycle. Respiration is a balanced
reaction .A reduction in oxygen and an increase in carbon dioxide will reduce the rate of
respiration, thusextendingthe shelf life of the product. In fruits, the concentrations of both
CO2 and O2 areimportant.ThereducedO2 concentration between 20% and 2% level
decreases the rate of respiration. The effect is higher at lower oxygen concentration,
according to a negative exponential funtion curve. Some oxygen needs to be present to
prevent an anaerobic environment, which can be physiologically harmful to tissue
metabolism. The critical O2 concentration that initiates anaerobic respiration depends on the
respiratory activity of fruit tissue. Each produce has it sown tolerance of oxygen and
response to lowering of O2 level. At the critical O2 level, the anaerobic respiration starts
producing acetaldehyde and alcohol, which poison the tissue, cause physiological disorders
or death, and lead to quality loss of perishable fruit.
The inhibitory effect of CO2 on growth and metabolism of microorganisms. This can be
exploited in the preservation refrigerated food.Carbondioxi dehydrates and dissociates in the
water content of food. In most food systems, this involves the following equilibrium because
the pH values are less than eight.
CO2 +H2O↔H2CO3 ↔HCO3−+H+
The concentration of CO2 in solution depends on its partial pressure in the gas phase,
temperature, and pH. As pH increases above 8.0, carbonate ions are formed and the
equilibrium is shifted further to right.Detailed antimicrobial mechanisms of CO2 are not
fully understood but theorized as follows
When CO2 comes in contact with membrane proteins, it changes the ionic charges of the
cell membrane, which can then interrupt the transport of specific ions needed for maintaining
homeostasis in the cytoplasm.
CO2 permeates the membrane and reacts with water in the cytoplasm (see earlier). The
hydrogen ions formed acidify the inside of the cell and the organism requires cellular energy
to pump the protons back out. This added energy requirement creates a burden on the cells,
thereby inhibiting their growth.
CO2 plays a role by either inducing or repressing the synthesis of some cytoplasmic
enzymes.
Ethylene
Ethylene is a naturally occurring plant growth hormone the numerous effects on the growth,
development, and storage life of many fruits and vegetables, and ornamental crops at very
low concentrations . It is produced by virtually all parts of the higher plants, including
leaves, roots, flowers, fruits, tubers,and also seedlings. The path way of ethylene biosynthes
is elucidated by Adamand Youngis now well documented , and in both wounding and
ripening, the path way is thesame.MethionineisfirstconvertedtoS-
adenosylmethionine(SAM),whichthengivesriseto 1-aminocyclopropene-1-carboxylate
(ACC), catalyzed by ACC synthase. The final step is catalyzed by ACC oxidase (also known
as the ethylene-forming enzyme), in which ACC is converted to ethylene. In most plant
tissues ,the level of active ACC synthase determines the rate of ethylene production;
however, the mechanism(s) underlying the regulation of ACC synthase gene(s) during plant
development is unknown. Both ACC synthase and ACC oxidase transcript levels greatly
increase due to ripening and wounding. The biosynthesis pathway is illustrated in Harvested
fruits and vegetables may be intentionally or unintentionally exposed to biologically active
levels of ethylene, and both endogenous and exogenous sources of ethylene contribute to its
biological activity. Figure 5.2 is a schematic diagram showing the ethylene interactions
between plants and their environment. Endogenous sources of ethylene are internal synthesis
within plant and fruits, and exogenous sources are from externalsourcessuchasengineexhaust,
heaters,orripening fruits.Ethyleneproductionispromotedbystressessuchaschillinginjury and
wounding, and this stress induced C2H4 can enhance fruit ripening. Cell wall enzymes such
as exo- and endo-polygalacturonase, -galactosidase, and pecti methylesterase, induced by
ethylene can digest cell walls, resulting in texture changes, and lipoxygenase can degrade
membrane lipids.
Respiration
Fruits living organ of plants that under go biological and biochemical activity even after they
are separated from their plants. Respiration is a sequence of reactions whereby sugarsand
other substrates, for example,organicacids, are oxidized to carbon dioxide and water vapor,
and energy is released. The released energy is utilized to synthesize compounds such as
proteins and carbohydrates, which together constitute the tissues of the plant. In general,
respiration converts the stored energy into usable energy to sustain life. However, harvested
or fresh-cut products detached from the plants have a limited energy supply. Basically, the
rate of deterioration of harvested products is proportional to their rate of respiration. Hence,
the higher the rate of respiration, the shorter is the shelf life. The respiration rate of peeled
and sliced ripe kiwifruit is double of the whole fruit, but ripe bananas were unaffected by
peeling and slicing. Wound respiration in some plant tissues may be related to alpha-
oxidation of fatty acids, which oxidizes fatty acidstoCO2,andisresponsiblefor
theCO2releasedafter slicing go tubers. Respiration in plants is an oxidative degradation of
sugars, organic acids, and lipids to produce carbon dioxide and water with the release of
energy. Modifying the atmosphere around the product by lowering the amout of oxygen with
an increase in the amount of carbondi oxide may lower the metabolism with decrease in CO2
production and O2 consumption. The effects of low O2 and high CO2 are additive, but the
optimal concentrations of the two gases in the storage atmosphere of fruits and vegetables
and even between cultivars of the same species may vary.
Oxidative Browning
Discoloration occurs at the cut surface of fruits as a result of the disruption of
compartmentation that occurs when cells are broken, allowing substrates and
oxidaseenzymesto come in contact with each other.Wounding also induces synthesis of some
enzymes involved in browning reaction biosynthesis of their substrates.Thus, browning
intensity in diverse tissues and crops can be affected by relative oxidase activities and
substrate concentrations. Oxidative browning at the cut surface is the limiting factor in
storage of many minimally processed fruits and vegetables. Phenylalanineammonialyase is a
key enzyme in the synthesis of phenolic compounds. Activity of PAL is increased in lettuce
midrib tissue with wounding and storage in the presence or absence of ethylene. PAL
catalyzes the first reaction in the biosynthesis of plant phenylpropanoid products. The
phenolic compounds can then be oxidized by polyphenoloxidase (PPO), producing brown
polymers that can contribute to tissue browning in lettuce. When fruits such as apples and
bananas are cut, the cut surfaces usually turn brown within an hour. On the other hand, it
takes several hours for the section of cut or shredded vegetables such as lettuce to turn
brown. Thistimelagisconsideredtobeduetothedenovobiosynthesisofpolyphenols.The lettuce
tissues with the highest susceptibility to enzymatic browning are the “white” tissue or the so-
called midribs. This browning is a major problem that arises during minimal processing and
further storage of lettuce midribs.
Ascorbic Acid Oxidation
Fruits, either processed or “fresh,” are major sources of dietary vitamin C for humans.
Before fruits and vegetables are consumed, they have to undergo various handling, storage,
and processing steps. The vitamin C content of sliced, cut, or bruised fruits may dimini
shrapidly depending on these handling, processing,and storage conditions used. Ascorbic
acid is an organic acid found in fruits. It is very soluble in water and is sensitive to alkali;
oxygen; and presence of copper, iron, and heat. Ascorbic acid is often considered to be
equivalent to vitamin C content; however, dehydro ascorbic acid (DHAA), the oxidized form
of ascorbic acid, also has vitamin C activity. Further oxidation of DHAA converts it to 2,3-
diketogulonic acid, which is devoid of biological activity The loss of ascorbic acid provides
a useful index of oxidative deterioration in minimally processed fruits and vegetables. There
are two aspects of ascorbic acid degradation. First, ascorbic acid can be oxidized due to
mechanical damage as a result of cutting. When cells of fresh product are ruptured as occurs
during cutting, chemical reactions are initiated, which shorten the storage life of cut product.
Flow chart of minimal processing of guava