The objective of this work was to evaluate the role of two types of conditioning process in quality of frozen and stored araticum’s pulp at -18ºC. The fruits were collected at pre-maturing developmental stage, packed into boxes wrapped with bubble plastic, transported to the laboratory and stored for 7 days at 22ºC and 90% RH to complete the maturation. Afterwards, they were pulped and the pulp was stored in: 1) low-density polyethylene packages (LDPE) 60 micro, hermetically packed in a sealing machine or 2) low-density polyethylene packages (LDPE) 60 micro vacuum sealed. Those units were frozen at -18ºC for 402 days and were evaluated at processing day and at 30; 90; 150; 210 and 402 days of storage, for soluble solids contents (SS), titratable acidity (TA), SS/TA, ascorbic acid, total extractable polyphenols and total antioxidant activity using the Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) method. The results were submitted to an analysis of variance and the means were each other compared using Tukey test with Sisvar software. It is conclued that is not necessary the use of vacuum to package the frozen araticum’s pulp for 402 days, at -18ºC.
Keywords: Annona crassiflora Mart, freezing, vacuum.