“…Carboxylic acid groups of the resulting low methyl esterified pectin can then form complexes with Ca +2 ions resulting in an egg-box pattern that can entrap water (Draye & Van Cutsern, 2008;Sirijariyawat et al, 2012). The entrapment of water within a continuous solid matrix is crucial to fruit texture, and is highly related to the firmness of fruits and vegetables (Fraeye et al, 2010;Ortiz, Graell, & Lara, 2011). In a previous study by the researchers, samples that had been infused with Ca-PME at atmospheric pressure had higher firmness (though not significant with p N 0.05) than the control.…”