APPLICATION OF BACTERIAL CELLULOSE CONSERVATION OF MINIMALLY PROCESSED FRUITS

Resumo

The consumer by fresh food such as fruits has increased in the last decades and the minimally processed has come to attend this demand. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the application of celluloses biofilm in the conservation of minimally processed fruits. It was followed a (2 x 5) factorial design, with two treatments (with and without cellulose) and five periods of storage (0, 48, 96, 144 and 192h). Strawberries cv. Festival (intact) and apples (four sliced) cv. Gala were used as samples for the biofilm application. The output variable were the fruit mass, the total titratable acidity (ATT), soluble solids total (SST), the relation SST/ATT, pH, firmness, phenolic compounds and vitamin C. Strawberries test as compared with the control kept the fresh mass until 120h, decrease were observed in SST (5.8%), pH (1.5%), firmness (18.4%), vitamin C (2.2%) and increase in the concentration of phenolic compounds (3.4%). Apples test compared to the control show decrease in weight loss (10.5%), increase in ATT (15.6%) of SST (8.1%), TSS / TTA (6.7%), firmness (18.8%) and vitamin C (22.2%). The bacterial cellulose was efficient maintaining quality of the strawberries and apples in the quality attributes of fresh mass, ATT, SST, firmness and vitamin C, as a natural preservative. The application of bacterial cellulose biofilm offers using potential in fruits minimally processed, kept by combine methods (biofilm and cooling), maintaining the quality by physical and chemical stability of the products.