Physical and Sensory Properties of Japanese Quince Chips Obtained by Osmotic Dehydration in Fruit Juice Concentrates and Hybrid Drying

Abstract

Japanese quince has high health value, but due to its taste and texture, it is difficult to eat raw. The use of innovative drying methods to produce dried snack foods from these fruits may be of interest to producers and consumers. The physicochemical and sensory properties of 3 mm slices of Japanese quince fruit (with skin, without seeds) obtained by osmotic pre-treatment in chokeberry and apple juice concentrates, and with the use of convection (convective drying, C-D), freeze-drying (F-D), and convection-microwave-vacuum drying (hybrid) are assessed. The methods of drying osmo-dehydrated slices do not affect the dry matter content. In most dried quince, the water activity is 0.40 or lower. Pre-osmotic dehydration and drying have a significant impact on the mechanical and acoustic properties of quince chips. Sensory attractive chips emit loud acoustic emission (AE) during the breaking test. Chips that are osmo-dehydrated in a mixture of chokeberry juice concentrate and sucrose and dried by a hybrid method are attractive. They have a dark red color given by chokeberry concentrate and a slight sweet (with a slight sour-bitter) taste. The sensory evaluation was useful for determining the quality of the chips in terms of their texture (crispness) tested by mechanical methods. Their sensory ratings (overall desirability as weight of color, taste, crispness, and flavor) are high and similar (from 3.8 to 4.1). The use of innovative drying methods with pre-osmotic treatment allows obtaining dried material with properties comparable to those obtained by the F-D method, but in a much shorter time, i.e., with lower energy and using a simple method.

Innovative Freeze-Dried Snacks with Sodium Alginate and Fruit Pomace (Only Apple or Only Chokeberry) Obtained within the Framework of Sustainable Production

“…SI—color saturation indicator [ 39 ] where: a*—red colour coefficient [dimensionless value] b*—yellow colour coefficient [dimensionless value] …”

Optimization of Osmotic Dehydration of White Mushrooms by Response Surface Methodology for Shelf-Life Extension and Quality Improvement of Frozen End-Products

“…To assess potential correlations and spot similarities/differences between the analyzed mushroom samples, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed in terms of properties associated to mass transport phenomena [ 65 ]. PCA was carried out on the depended values a w , %MC, %NaCl, WL, SG, and °Brix obtained at different immersion times, temperatures, and %glycerol.…”

Edible coatings as osmotic dehydration pretreatment in nutrient‐enhanced fruit or vegetable snacks development: A review

“…This phenomenon may be prevented using juice concentrates or extracts, which may additionally enrich the product with valuable ingredients. In recent years, that is, concentrated juices of apples, chokeberry, flowering quince, raspberry (for pumpkin; Lech et al, 2018), raspberry juices, black berries, chokeberry (for apple; Samborska et al, 2019), concentrated chokeberry juice (for strawberry; Kowalska et al, 2017), concentrated chokeberry apple juice (for quince; Kowalska, Marzec, Domian, et al, 2020a), FOS from Yacon extract (for apple; Mejía-Águila et al, 2021) have been used for the purpose of the OD. OD of pumpkin slices for 6 h in concentrated chokeberry juice caused a 10-fold increase in the content of polyphenols using vacuum-microwave drying (VMD) in comparison with pumpkin not subjected to the preliminary OD.…”