SOLUTE

CONCENTRATION
of VEGETABLES
P R E PARE D BY:
M A. LOU RD E S C H AN T E L LE S IL AVA
Kinetic study of the effect
INNOVATIVE FOOD SCIENCE AND EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES 9 (2008) 542-549
of
the osmotic dehydration
pre-treatment to the shelf-
life of frozen cucumber
E FIM IA K . D E RM E SO N LO UO GLOU , S TE LL A P OUR GOU RI, P E TR OS S.
TAOU K IS
1. Introduction
Osmotic dehydration in concentrated carbohydrate solutions has been
proposed as a pre-treatment to conventional freezing.
The osmotic pre-treatment causes a reformulation effect through water
reduction and solid enrichment (Torreggiani, 1995).
During subsequent freezing, the energy demand decreases (Huxsoll, 1982;
Marani, Angelli, & Mascheroni, 2007), the freezing temperature is lower
and the value of the glass transition temperature is higher (Torreggiani et
al., 1999) improving the storage stability of the final osmo-dehydrofrozen
product (Fito et al., 2001).
During osmotic processing, water flux from the product into the osmotic
solution is accompanied by osmotic solute transfer from the solution into the
product (Kowalska, & Lenart, 2001; Ponting, Watters, Forrey, Jackson, &
Stanley, 1966).
 Expected water loss (WL)
Expected solid grain (SG)
Solute choice Sensory properties of the final product
depends on:

Cultivar used
Composition and concentration of osmotic solutes in the osmotic solution
Temperature of osmotic solution
Factors affecting Immersion time
the rate of water Level of agitation in the solution
removal and Specific characteristics (size and shape) of the food
solute Solution-to-food ratio
impregnation
Osmotic dehydration as pre-treatment:
Reduces product water activity and enzyme activity with
slight changes in product characteristics
Decreases enzymic browning
Can retain or even improve food product colour

Dehydration pre-freeze treatments are a useful tool to

improve texture characteristics of thawed fruits and
vegetables and reduce structural collapse and drip
loss during thawing (Forni et al., 1987).
Cucumber
High in water content (96%)
Contain vitamin C (4.7 mg ascorbic acid/100 g) and minerals
(e.g. 14 mg calcium/100 g raw cucumber, 149 mg
potassium/100 g, 17 mg phosphorus/100 g, 11 mg
magnesium/100 g)
Can be alternatively consumed as pickled cucumbers or
combined with products such as yogurt, mayonnaise, salads
and other dishes
There is a need to develop processing methods for cucumber that
have minimal effect on physico-chemical characteristics and sensory
quality.
Freezing has not been yet an alternative for processing and storage
of cucumbers in the food industry. The main difficulty with freezing
the tissue is related to the loss of texture, colour and flavor.
Osmotic dehydration at mild temperatures can preserve product
texture, and enhance flavour and other sensory properties (colour).
Added benefits can include nutritional or functional properties,
attributed to uptaken solutes.
Objective of the Study

To evaluate the effects of the osmotic pre-treatment

(with the use of alternative osmotic solutes) on the
quality and shelf life of frozen cucumber tissue
To develop a method of processing cucumber that
maintains a palatable product while optimizing quality
at the beginning and during frozen storage
2. Materials and
methods
2.1 Sample Preparation
Fresh cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.)
were obtained from a producer in
eastern Crete, Greece.
Cucumbers were sorted and manually
peeled. The flesh was cut into pieces of 5
mm thickness and 35 mm diameter.
Part of cucumbers was blanched by
direct immersion of samples in hot water
at 80 C for 40 s.
Average moisture content was found to
be 95.5% (dry basis)
 2.2 Solution preparation

Solutions of 56.5% carbohydrate concentrations

were prepared by blending with distilled water
on a weight-to-weight basis.
Carbohydrates used:
Oligofructose (RAFTILOSE, Orafti, Belgium)
High DE (Dextrose Equivalent=47)
maltodextrin coded as HDM (GLUCIDEX47,
Roquette, France)
NaCl (3.5% wt/wt) and CaCl2 (1.5% wt/wt) were
also added for texture reinforcement purposes.
2.3 Osmotic pre-treatment

The samples were subjected to osmotic dehydration over a range of

temperatures:
15 C cold treatment temperature
35 C mild temperature
55 C high temperature

Dehydration time: 360 min for 15C, 300 min for 35C and 180 min for
55C
Cucumber-to-solution ratio = 1:5 (weight to weight)
The samples were removed from the osmotic solution at selected times
(e.g. 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200, 220, 240, 270,
300, 330 and 360 min for the experiment at 15 C), blotted gently with a
tissue paper in order to remove adhering water and then weighed.
Water content estimation:
The samples were dried in an oven at 110 C for 24 h

The moisture and solid content at any time were expressed as

g of water/g of initial dry solids and g of solids/g of initial dry
solids, respectively.
2.3.1 Calculation of water loss and solid gain

Water loss (WL) and solid gain (SG) undergone by cucumber slices
during the osmotic pre-treatment were expressed as % (wt/wt) of
initial dry weight of cucumber slices according to the following
equations (Panagiotou, Karathanos, & Maroulis, 1999)

where M0 is the initial mass of fresh vegetable before the osmotic

treatment, M is the mass of cucumbers after time t of osmotic
treatment, m is the dry mass of cucumbers after time t of osmotic
treatment and m0 is the dry mass of fresh vegetable.
2.3.2. Determination of effective diffusivities during osmotic
pretreatment

The solution of Fick's second law for diffusion from an infinite

slab (thickness 2l) being dehydrated from both sides, with
suitable assumptions and boundary conditions, result in the
following equations for the transfer of water (Rastogi &
Raghavarao, 1997):

where M is the water ratio; the subscripts o, t and represent

the relevant concentrations at time 0, t and at equilibrium; Dew is
the effective diffusivity of water, l is the half thickness of the slab;
2.4. Freezing
After being osmotically dehydrated at temperature 35 C for 60
min, cucumber slices were placed on perforated aluminum
disks to allow their fast, uniform freezing through air
circulation at 40 C in a freezer for biological samples (Sanyo
MIR 553, Sanyo Electric Co, OraGun, Gunma, Japan).

After 24 h storage at 40 C, all cucumbers were packed in

pouches from BOPP-PE laminate film used for commercial
frozen vegetable products, and kept at this temperature for a
short period of time before being distributed to controlled
temperature cabinets.
2.5. Shelf life kinetic study
Packages of untreated, blanched and pre-treated with the
osmotic solute frozen samples were stored in controlled
temperature cabinets (Sanyo MIR 153, 253 and 553, Sanyo
Electric Co, Ora-Gun, Gunma, Japan) at constant temperatures
(5, 8, 12, and 15 C) and monitored by type T
thermocouples.

The temperature range of testing was higher than the

reference for frozen storage of 18 C, according to the
accelerated shelf life testing (ASLT) principles (Taoukis,
Labuza, and Saguy, 1997) applied to allow prediction of quality
at conditions where testing would require very long time.
2.5.1. Colour and texture measurement

Colour measurements (68 replicates) were conducted using a

colourimeter (CR-200 Minolta Chromameter, Minolta Co.,
Chuo-Ku, Osaka, Japan) to obtain CIELabvalues [L
(illuminance), a (red saturation index) and b (yellow saturation
index)]. Samples were coded, placed on appropriately designed
tray and three replicants of each measurement were
conducted.

Texture measurements were conducted by means of a texture

analyzer (TA-XT2i of Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, Surrey,
England), and a TPA (Texture Profile Analysis) test was carried
out using cucumbers (3 replicates) thawed at room
temperature for 30 min.
The test was performed on a non-lubricated flat platform using
a knife probe with which samples are cut at a fixed rate and
depth (1/3 of the initial).

Calculated texture characteristics:

Firmness
Adhesiveness
Elasticity
Cohesiveness
Chewiness
Gumminess
2.5.2. Sensory analysis

Sensory evaluation was carried out by a panel of five trained

assessors (Dermesonlouoglou, Giannakourou, & Taoukis,
2007a,b).

Attributes:
for appearance green colour
for texture firm/crispy
for taste cucumber taste (odour/flavour) intensity

The intensity of all sensory impressions was evaluated using a

scale from 1 to 9 (1 = low intensity and 9 = high intensity). The
panel also performed a preference/acceptance test using a 9-
point hedonic scale.
2.6. Data analysis
The results for measured quality indices were plotted vs. time
for all temperatures studied and for all different groups of pre-
treated or untreated samples of cucumbers, and the
temperature dependence of quality degradation was modelled
with the Arrhenius equation.

2.7 Statistical analysis

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey multiple range tests
(a=0.05) were used to determine statistically significant
differences (STATISTICA 7.0, StatSoftInc., Tulsa,USA) between
the alternative osmotic agents used.
3. Results and Discussion
 3.1. Osmotic
pre-treatment
The osmotic
process was
studied in terms of
water loss and solid
uptake

Fig. 1. Osmosis
kinetics: approach to
equilibrium of % water
content and total
solids, for cucumbers
immersed in two
alternative osmotic
solutions of (a, b)
Temperature is one of the factors which is known to be
involved in the rupture of the integrity of plant tissues and
membranes.

Thebud and Santarius (1982) reported that at temperature 55

C plasmatic membranes begin to suffer irreversible damage.
Low temperatures such as 15 C, on the other, cause
equivalent mass exchange at much longer times.

Based on this criterion, the timetemperature combination of 60

min 35 C was selected for the following shelf-life kinetic
study.

3.2. Osmodehydrofreezing and quality
Decrease in green (from +a: red to a: green) and yellow (from +b:
blue to b: yellow) intensity in frozen cucumber colour was the
characteristic colour change during frozen storage.

The organoleptically perceived colour change described above was

found to be adequately modelled by a first-order reaction:

where is the chroma change, DCmax is the asymptote value of DC

observed after a period of storage, DCo at zero time, ao and bo the
values of a and b colour parameters at zero time, kcol is the kinetic
rate at temperature T
 Fig. 2.
Colour change of cucumbers
stored at different storage
temperatures: (a) osmotically pre-
treated samples with
oligofructose, and (b) osmotically
pre-treated samples with HDM,
and then frozen
The temperature dependence of deterioration rate kcol was then
modelled by the Arrhenius equation:

where kref is the rate constant of colour deterioration at the

reference temperature, Tref, EA is the activation energy and R is
the universal gas constant.
 Fig. 3. Rates of colour change, kcol, for: all samples, untreated,
blanched, and osmotically pre-treated with oligofructose and HDM at
temperatures studied
Fig. 4. Arrhenius plot of the
colour change rates, kcol: (a)
osmotically pre-treated cucumber
samples with oligofructose and (b)
osmotically pre-treated samples
with HDM, (Tref =18 C).
Fig. 5. Firmness values
(maximum forces: g) of
thawed cucumber samples:
untreated, conventionally
frozen samples and
osmotically pre-treated with
oligofructose and HDM
samples, frozen, and then
stored at temperatures: (a)
5 C and (b) 15 C
Sensory testing confirmed better colour retention in all
osmodehydrofrozen cucumber, when compared to
conventionally frozen, both blanched and unblanched samples.
Flavour was judged as pleasant and organoleptically
preferred.

For texture, pre-treated samples were found to retain an

improved firmness and crispiness than the untreated ones
during their subsequent frozen storage in frozen, in agreement
to the respective texture measurements. Even during their
storage in awide temperature range between 5 to 15 C, the
results confirmed the initial observation that tissue integrity
and colour was better retained in osmotically pretreated
samples
4. Conclusion
Colour showed a significantly increased retention in dehydrofrozen samples,
compared to the untreated, conventionally frozen ones, in the whole
temperature range studied, including the most detrimental 5 to 15 C
freezing zone.
The results of the kinetic study in the different systems of cucumbers, untreated
or osmotically pre-treated, indicate that Arrhenius equation can be used. This
can be of significant practical value for shelf life modeling and predictions.
The osmotic dehydration prior to freezing on cucumbers has demonstrated to be
useful for limiting quality loss of frozen cucumber. The obtained sugar
enrichment and partial water removal improves the sensory characteristics of
treated cucumber slices, when compared to untreated ones, which suffered from
a detrimental texture and taste deterioration during storage.