Qualidade de Cenoura minimamente processada.

Abstract

The carrot (Daucus carota) is a vegetable belonging to the family Apiaceae, from the group of tuberous roots that presents high nutritional value. Carrot is an excellent choice as a vegetable for minimal processing. Minimally processed products have gained considerable market share in fresh and "ready-to-eat" fruits and vegetables. However, the expansion of this market segment has been hampered by the short lifespan resulting from the preparation operations. The present work had as objective to evaluate the quality in carrots minimally processed submitted to different cuts and maintained in two types of packages, under 3 °C. The carrots were subjected to the slice cut (C1) and grated (C2), then were subjected polystyrene trays packaging expanded PVC film of 12 m thickness (E1) and closing polyethylene bags for ZIP (E2). After processing, the carrots were evaluated for physical and chemical-physical characteristics: Mass loss, soluble solids, Titratable acidity, pH, soluble solids / Acidity, total soluble sugars and ascorbic acid. The Experimental Design was in a 2 x 2 x 6 factorial scheme, with 3 replicates. The mass loss was higher for the E1C1 and E1C2 treatments, and stable on E2C1 and E2C2. The treatment with expanded polystyrene trays with PVC film presented higher gain of soluble solids. For Titratable Acidity, the E1C2 treatment presented the highest gain. The treatments presented a sudden fall of pH from the 6th to the 8th day. The treatments presented high average values for the interaction of soluble solids / titratable acidity. The E2C1 treatment presented the best results of Ascorbic Acid. Total Soluble Sugars were higher for E1C1 and E1C2 treatments. Considering the results obtained treating the E2C1 (ZIP by closing sachets with carrot slices in minimally processed) is introduced as the most effective for the proposed minimally processed products.