Effect of storage conditions on dried vegetal pear quality

摘要

In Mexico, vegetal pear, ¨chayote¨ (Sechium edule) is related with the daily diet of the Mexican population. Itis one of the cheapest vegetables available, and every part of the plant is useful. The storage life of freshvegetal pear is limited. One of the possible methods of vegetal pear processing is dehydration process byconvection. Storage conditions after drying affects the ultimate functionality or quality until the product isused. The aim of this work was to evaluate the stability of the dehydrated vegetal pear during storage underdifferent water activities (a_w), temperatures and vacuum package. Dehydrated vegetal pear by tray drying atdifferent conditions was packed into polyethylene bags in two different atmospheres (vacuum and nitrogen)and stored at 7 and 28 °C during 90 days. The experimental results showed that an increase of the storagetime and a_w (0.45 to 0.60) produces a detrimental for the conservation of the vegetal pear quality in bothkinds of package atmosphere. However, at water activity of 0.3, there was no significant difference (Dunnett,α=0.5) on product quality at two tested temperatures and atmospheres. Nitrogen storage keeps quality higherthan the others treatments tested. The best treatment was at 7 and 28 °C, nitrogen packaging and a_w of 0.3,where the colour difference was only 3-5 in 90 days. Although, this work presented evidence that storageconditions may affected quality of dried vegetal pear. The dried vegetal pear stored during 90 days offers thepossibility to use in the fast-food industry.