Abstract

VILLA, CRISTIAN CAMILO; NIETO, JHON ALEXANDER  and  PINZON, MAGDA IVONNE. COMPOSITIONAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH SUCCESSIVE OSMODEHYDRATION CYCLES OF TREE TOMATO. Rev.Bio.Agro [online]. 2009, vol.7, n.1, pp.29-35. ISSN 1692-3561.

Osmotic Dehydration (OD) is one of the most interesting processes to be applied in the food industry because it allows the preservation of products, by reducing their water activity, using the osmotic pressure of a concentrated solution of sugar, salt or other materials. The application of this technique to tropical fruits rich in exotic flavors such as tree tomato (Cyphomandra betacea (Cav) Sendth), have shown great potential, but has been constrained by the economic and environmental problem that represents the management large volumes of the osmotic solution. This article establishes the possibility of reusing the osmotic solution (OS) in the OD process of deformed cubes of tree tomato during 240 minutes in a 65 °Brix OS, with a solution: fruit rate of 5:1. At each OD cycle the fruits were renovated and the OS was reused without reconcentration filtering every 4 cycles. The weight and moisture loss, the gain of °Brix, and the decline in a_w of the fruits in each OD cycle were analyzed. Recounts of aerobic mesophilic microorganisms, fungi and yeasts on the OS were performed after each odd OD cycle. It was found that the OS maintains dehydration character similar to the first cycle of OD for 7 successive cycles of the process and is microbiologically stable until the ninth cycle of OD.

Keywords : Osmotic dehydration; tree tomato; osmotic solution; Cyphomandra betacea (Cav) Sendth.

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