Packages influencing BRS Vitória raisins quality maintenance

Resumo

From grapes cultivation is possible to obtaining different processed products, such as wines, juices, raisins, and others. Dehydrated fruits are widely consumed in Brazil due to the health benefits, being rich in antioxidants and phenolic compounds. The BRS Vitória variety was recently developed in Brazil, presenting a high potential for raisins production. However, there are still no studies regarding the use of packaging to maintain the quality of raisins obtained from the BRS Vitória variety. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of three packages on the maintenance of quality parameters of 'BRS Vitória' raisins during 120 days of storage. Raisins were packed in sealed metallized polyethylene (PET), transparent polypropylene bags and lided polystyrene pots. Raisins samples were evaluated at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after storage at 25°C. For the conditions in which this study was carried out, it was observed that the packages did not provided significant changes in the evaluated quality parameters of BRS Vitória raisins, indicating the appropriate packaging as the one with the lowest cost, in this case, the transparent polypropylene bags. The antioxidant activity of the raisins was only affected by the storage time, remaining with is considerable levels of antioxidant until the end of storage. It was observed a significant interaction between storage time and packaging in the phenolics content. Storage time influenced the raisins firmness, color and antioxidant activity. According to the multivariate analysis, the storage time was the main influencing factor of the variables studied, regardless of the packaging used.