Effect of processing on the physicochemical and sensory properties of mammee apple (Mammea americana L.) fruit

Efecto del procesamiento en las propiedades fisicoquímicas y sensoriales del fruto mamey amarillo (Mammea americana L.)

Luís E. Ordóñez-Santos*, Gloria M. Martínez-Álvarez, Andrea M. Vázquez-Riascos

Departamento de Ingeníeria, Facultad de Ingeniería y Administración, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. *Author for correspondence

Received: July, 2013.
Approved: April, 2014.

Abstract

Mammee apple (Mammea americana L.) fruits are promising sources of various bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, vitamin C, and phenolic compounds, and offer great potential for use in agro-industrial processing and to meet the requirements desired for consumer health. The objective of this study was to evaluate physicochemical and sensory changes of mammee apple after syrup and jam processing. Fruits were washed, cut, pulped, blanched, and the pieces of fruit blanching were stored in 125 mL glass jars, and covered with 18 °Brix boiling sugar syrup. The mixture was pasteurized and cooled. Jam contained 50 % fruit, 50 % sugar, and 3 % pectin; sugar was added and the mixture boiled to a final concentration of 60 to 62 °Brix. The experimental design was randomized block to one factor, with the fruit, syrup and jam as treatments. The physicochemical and sensory properties of mammee apple changed significantly (p≤0.05) when processed into syrup and jam, except the total carotenoid concentration. The dry matter content, soluble solids, and vitamin C concentration had the highest concentrations in the jam (p≤0.01). The color attributes L* and C* decreased significantly (p≤0.001) in syrup and jam, and the tone (h°) was significantly reduced during the preparation of syrup. Mammee apple jam was most preferred to obtain higher scores.

Key words: Exotic fruit, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, pH, dry matter.

Resumen

Los frutos de mamey (Mammea americana L.) son una fuente promisoria de diversos compuestos bioactivos como carotenoides, vitamina C y compuestos fenólicos, y ofrecen gran potencial para su uso en procesamientos agroindustriales y cubrir los requerimientos deseados para la salud del consumidor. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar los cambios fisicoquímicos y sensoriales del mamey después de su procesamiento para hacer almíbar y mermelada. Los frutos se lavaron, se cortaron, se sacó la pulpa, se escaldaron, y los pedazos de fruta escaldados se envasaron en frascos de vidrio de 125 mL y se cubrieron con almíbar de azúcar hirviendo de 18 °Brix. La mezcla se pasteurizó y enfrió. La mermelada contenía 50 % fruta, 50 % azúcar y 3 % pectina; se añadió azúcar y la mezcla se hirvió hasta una concentración final de 60 a 62 °Brix. El diseño experimental fue de bloques al azar con un factor, y los tratamientos fueron la fruta, el almíbar y la mermelada. Las propiedades fisicoquímicas y sensoriales del mamey cambiaron significativamente (p≤0.05) cuando se procesaron en almíbar y mermelada, excepto la concentración total de carotenoides. El contenido de materia seca y de sólidos solubles, y la concentración de vitamina C tuvieron su máximo en la mermelada (p≤ 0.01). Los atributos de color L* y C* disminuyeron significativamente (p≤0.001) en almíbar y mermelada, y el tono (h°) se redujo significativamente durante la preparación del almíbar. La mermelada de mamey fue la preferida para obtener las calificaciones más altas.

INTRODUCTION

Tropical exotic fruit production, trade and consumption have increased significantly on the domestic and international markets due to their attractive sensory properties and a growing recognition of their nutritional and therapeutic value (Ayala-Zavala et al., 2011). Nutrientrich food gains popularity due to the desire of consumers for healthy eating and drinking while experiencing new and exotic flavors, and at the same time, due to the focus of industries to produce beverages with the health claim as a parameter of differentiation (Vidigal et al., 2011). Within the current consumer trend for healthy foods, mammee apple (Mammea americana L.) offers great potential for use in agro-industrial processing in order to meet the requirements desired for consumer health. Mammea americana L., an arboreal species native of Antilhas, was introduced into the tropics worldwide. Its fruit contains a yellow reddish, aromatic and edible pulp; 100 g of pulp contains 47 mg K, 14 mg vitamin C, 12 μg vitamin A, and 14 μg folate (Mourão and Beltrati, 2000; USDA, 2013). The pulp can be used to produce syrup, juice, sherbet, jam, and pastes (Lim, 2012). These fruits have an important agro-industrial potential in the tropics; however, in the literature reviewed no reports were found about physicochemical and sensory changes of mammee apple fruit after being processed. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in the physicochemical and sensory properties of mammee apple fruit that is processed into syrup and jam.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Syrup and jams preparation procedures

A 50 kg sample of mammee apple fruit cv. Mamey Cartagena was purchased at the local market (Palmira, Colombia) with a status of maturity suitable for processing or fresh consumption, divided into five lots, and processed at Laboratory Technology of Fruit and Vegetables of the National University of Colombia, according to standard industry practices. The fruit was washed with tapwater, homogenized and a portion of each lot removed for analysis. Each lot of the remaining fruit was disinfected for 10 min by immersion in 50 ppm solution of sodium hypochlorite. Then the fruit was pulped, manually cut into slices (size, 7x1x1 cm), and immediately blanched for 60 s in a water bath (80 °C) to avoid enzymatic browning and remove the air entrapped in the fruit tissues.

A portion of fruits blanching were destination for the product in syrup, and another for the preparation of jam; 70 g of fruit blanching were placed into 125 mL glass jars, and covered with 18 °Brix boiling sugar syrup (prepared by adding a predetermined weight of sucrose to boiling water), leaving a headspace of 10 mm in order to provide effective steam flow closure. The sealed jars were immersed in boiling water (100 °C) to increase temperature at the center to at least 88 °C; this treatment of pasteurization was established because the canned in syrup has pH values <4.0 and Bacillus coagulans was used as reference organism with T_ref=93.3 °C and z=8.9 (Hoppe et al., 2006). Immediately after processing, the jars were cooled by sprinkling cold water on them until the center temperature reached 10 °C. Five jars were randomly selected (one per lot) and removed for further analysis. The remaining fruits blanching was used for jam formulation, 50 % fruit, 50 % sugar, and 3 % pectin added by manual agitation; the mixture was boiled for 2 min to allow proper pectin hydration. The pH was adjusted as needed by adding a few drops of 30 % citric acid solution to a target pH of 3.0-3.2. Sugar was added and the mixture boiled to a final concentration 60-62 °Brix (approximately 104-105 °C final boiling point). The jam was hot-packed (90 °C) in 250 mL containers aluminum, then cooled in a water bath till 20 °C and stored at room temperature at least 24 h to archieve gellification. Five containers were randomly selected (one from each lot) and stored for further analysis.

Physicochemical analyses

Determination of carotenoids and vitamin C content

Total carotenoids were extracted according to Ordóñez-Santos et al. (2009). Later, 2 g sample was weighed in a 50 mL Erlenmeyer flask and 25 mL of 2:1:1 hexane/acetone/ethanol (Merck), the flask was covered with aluminum foil, shook 10 min in crushed ice, then 10 mL of distilled water were added and the mixture shaken for 5 min more. A 4 mL sample was taken from the organic (hexane) phase using a Pasteur pipette and absorbance of the extract was measured at 453 nm against hexane in a Genesys 10 UV-Vis spectrophotometer (Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Madison, WI, USA). Concentration (μg g^-1 pulp) was calculated using the molar extinction coefficients: 13.9x10⁴ for β-carotene in hexane at 453 nm, according to Fish et al. (2002) and Nagal et al. (2012).

Vitamin C content was determined according to Oboh (2006). From the sample 5 g were extracted wiht 100 mL H₂O, 10 mL of the extract were mixed with 25 mL of 20 % glacial acetic acid (Merck) and titrated against standardized 2,6-dichloroindophenol (0.05 g 100 mL^-1) solution (Merck). External calibration whith authenticated ascorbic acid (Merck) standard patron was used to quantify vitamin C in the solutions, expressing the result as mg ascorbic acid 100 g^-1 pulp. All the analyses were performed in triplicate.

Colour measurements

A Minolta CR-400 colour colorimeter was used for this study. Analyses were performed by reflection on a 2.5 mm thick sample placed over a white surface. The instrument was standardized each time with a black and a white (Y=89.5; x=0.3176; y=0.3347) tile using illuminant D65 (8 mm diameter measuring area), and a 2° observer. Data were collected in CIE Lab color space and the values of L (brightness), a (red to green color) and b (yellow to blue color) were recorded during each test. Chroma (C*) [(a²+b²)]^0.5, that quantify the intensity color, and hue (h°) angle tan^-1(b/a), defined as the actual color.

Sensory evaluation

An untrained panel of 147 members (males and females) performed the sensory evaluation of mammee apple fruit and syrup and jam, 3 d after the manufacturing. Samples were stored at 5 °C and taken out 3 h before serving. Color, taste, odor, texture, and overall acceptability of samples were evaluated following nine point hedonic scale: 9=like extremely, 8=like very much, 7=like moderately, 6=like slightly, 5=neither like nor dislike, 4=dislike slightly, 3=dislike moderately, 2=dislike very much, 1 = dislike extremely (Basu and Shivhare, 2010).

Statistical analyses

The experimental design was a randomized blocks, the treatments were fruit, syrup and jam, with five replicates per treatment. Data was analyzed with a one-way ANOVA and treatments means were compared using Tukey's test (p≤0.05). All statistical calculations were performed using SPSS 18 for Windows.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Physicochemical properties of mammee apple fruits

Physical characteristics of mammee apple fruit (Table 1) were: weight (g) 489.2±80.97, diameter (cm) 9.60±0.66, pulp (%) 67.85±3.60, seed (%) 17.40±5.86, and peel (%) 14.75 ±3.32. Weight and diameter were lower than those reported by Cedeño et al. (2013), whereas pH, titratable acidity, soluble solids and vitamin C concentration were similar.

Pulp yield was higher than that reported by Villalba et al. ( 2006), 54.39 % in cv. mamey Cartagena, and total carotenoid content was higher than that found by Rodriguez-Amaya et al. (2008), 14 μg g^-1 pulp. The high color parameters (L*, C* and h°) in the fruits show that the surface color of the pulp was between orange and yellow. Pulp yield, dry matter content, and total carotenoid content in mammee apple show its potential for agro-industrialization.

The effect of processing on mammee apple fruits

Physicochemical and sensory variables were affected after the fruit processing into syrup and jam, except total carotenoid concentration (Tables 1 and 2). Dry matter content (72.59 %), total soluble solids (61.30 °Brix), and vitamin C concentration (19.24 mg ascorbic acid 100 g^-1 pulp) had the highest concentrations in jam (Table 1), which was due to the added sugar and water removal during concentration of jam. The apparent vitamin C increase in the jam was probably generated by evaporation during the concentration process of the product, the addition of citric acid which reduced pH in the jam, offeed greater stability to the antioxidant, and also by direct or indirect action of antioxidants such as carotenoids and phenolic compounds (Ornelas-Paz et al., 2013). pH and titratable acidity changed in syrup and jam (Table 1), mainly due to addition of sugar, citric acid, leaching in syrup and concentration in the jam. Stability of total carotenoid was probably due both to thermal inactivation of enzymes that expose it to oxidants by destroying the cell wall (Tamburini et al., 1999), and by the presence of other antioxidants including ascorbic acid, tocopherol, and phenolic compounds (Takeoka et al., 2001). The increase or decrease in vitamin C and total carotenoid during processing can change the antioxidant activity of the product, as these molecules contribute to the hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant capacity of food (Danesi and Bordoni 2008 ). Therefore, the processing in syrup could reduce antioxidant capacity to significantly decrease the initial concentration of vitamin C in the mammee apple fruit.

Color parameters of samples showed significant differences (p≤0.001); thus, L* and C* decreased in syrup and jam respectively, while tone (h°) was reduced during preparation of syrup (Table 1). The complexity of fruit derivatives implies a range of nonenzymatic browning reactions caused by thermal treatments. Pasteurization of mammee apple syrup triggered the degradation of phenolic compounds in the fruit, this causes the discoloration of deep yellow color, and further heat treatment increased brown color. There are reports about effects of sugar and its degradation products, enhancement non-enzymatic browning reactions during thermal concentration (Lozano and Ibarz, 1997; Garza et al., 1999; Damasceno et al., 2008). Increase of tone (h°) during jam processing (Table 1) may be due to increase in free carotenoid at the expense of protein-bound, in partly derived from disruption of cell membranes by homogenization and heat treatment leading to cleavage of protein-carotenoid complexes and hence to increased extractability of carotenoids (Nguyen and Schwartz, 1999). Consumer's opinions about mammee apple products show high preferences for mammee apple fruit, syrup and jam; besides, processing increased level of acceptance of the fruit on consumers (p≤ 0.001; Table 2). Mammee apple jam was most preferred with higher scores for color (8.21), flavor (8.40), odor (7.46), texture (8.16) and overall acceptability (8.18), suggesting that mammee apple fruit could be suitable for jam processing.

CONCLUSIONS

These results show that the jam is a potential product for agro-industrialization of mammee apple, offering consumers high in carotenoids, new and exotic flavors.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This work was financially supported by the Research Directorate of the National University of Colombia at Palmira (DIPAL).

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