TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessment of Postharvest Dehydration Kinetics and Skin Mechanical Properties of “Muscat of Alexandria” Grapes by Response Surface Methodology
AU - Corona, Onofrio
AU - Torchio, Fabrizio
AU - Giacosa, Simone
AU - Río Segade, Susana
AU - Planeta, Diego
AU - Gerbi, Vincenzo
AU - Squadrito, Margherita
AU - Mencarelli, Fabio
AU - Rolle, Luca
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The dipping of berries in a dilute solution of sodium hydroxide during a short time was evaluated as pretreatment undertaken prior to convective dehydration of wine grapes. The impact of the sodium hydroxide content and dipping time on weight loss (WL) at different dehydration times was thoroughly assessed using central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). Furthermore, the effects of these two variables were also investigated on the skin mechanical properties of dehydrated grapes. The effect of these two pretreatment factors on the dehydration kinetics and skin hardness was satisfactorily fitted to regression models. The berry pretreatment with low sodium hydroxide contents (from 10 to 20 g/L) facilitated the dehydration process during the first 5 days when dipping times longer than 300 s were used. From the seventh day of dehydration, at which time the average WL% was close to 50, the highest values of WL% were obtained using intermediate sodium hydroxide contents and dipping times (around 45 g/L and 185 s, respectively). Because skin hardness affects the dehydration kinetics during postharvest withering, the strongest decrease in skin hardness corresponded to these last berry pretreatment conditions, whereas the greatest increase required the highest sodium hydroxide contents and longest dipping times. The quality of berries dehydrated may be influenced by the pretreatment conditions used, and the present study contributes to increase the knowledge on this effect to a better management of the alkaline pretreatment and dehydration process.
AB - The dipping of berries in a dilute solution of sodium hydroxide during a short time was evaluated as pretreatment undertaken prior to convective dehydration of wine grapes. The impact of the sodium hydroxide content and dipping time on weight loss (WL) at different dehydration times was thoroughly assessed using central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). Furthermore, the effects of these two variables were also investigated on the skin mechanical properties of dehydrated grapes. The effect of these two pretreatment factors on the dehydration kinetics and skin hardness was satisfactorily fitted to regression models. The berry pretreatment with low sodium hydroxide contents (from 10 to 20 g/L) facilitated the dehydration process during the first 5 days when dipping times longer than 300 s were used. From the seventh day of dehydration, at which time the average WL% was close to 50, the highest values of WL% were obtained using intermediate sodium hydroxide contents and dipping times (around 45 g/L and 185 s, respectively). Because skin hardness affects the dehydration kinetics during postharvest withering, the strongest decrease in skin hardness corresponded to these last berry pretreatment conditions, whereas the greatest increase required the highest sodium hydroxide contents and longest dipping times. The quality of berries dehydrated may be influenced by the pretreatment conditions used, and the present study contributes to increase the knowledge on this effect to a better management of the alkaline pretreatment and dehydration process.
KW - Alkaline pretreatment
KW - Berry skin mechanical properties
KW - Grape dehydration kinetics
KW - Muscat of Alexandria grapes
KW - Response surface methodology
KW - Alkaline pretreatment
KW - Berry skin mechanical properties
KW - Grape dehydration kinetics
KW - Muscat of Alexandria grapes
KW - Response surface methodology
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/78734
U2 - 10.1007/s11947-016-1697-y
DO - 10.1007/s11947-016-1697-y
M3 - Article
SN - 1935-5130
VL - 9
SP - 1060
EP - 1069
JO - Food and Bioprocess Technology
JF - Food and Bioprocess Technology
ER -