MONTENEGRO FILHO, Mozart Coelho.
Resumo:
Fruits offer lots of fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and sugars; being considered a great option for healthy eating. However, they are perishable, so they deteriorate in a short time and their marketing is difficult over long distances. One of the solutions found for this problem is fruit processing to obtain pulp. One of the important parameters for determining the quality of this product is the physical-chemical analysis, which allows it to be evaluated when processing conditions, storage, distribution for consumption, shelf life and health risks of the population. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the physicochemical quality of frozen fruit pulp marketed in Cuité / PB. Analyzes were done in triplicate and all methods complied with the standards of the Adolf Lutz Institute, a national reference in food analysis. The results showed that the pulps are out of the bosses established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), raising the discussion about the stages of the fruit pulp processing performed and about the tests performed in the factory itself. Brazilian legislation should include more physical and chemical parameters to define the quality of fruit pulps, setting their limits and determining the legislation to be complied with by the pulp processing companies.
