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Effects of rind removal on physicochemical quality characteristics of fresh‐cut watermelon [ C itrullus lanatus ( T hunb) M atsum & N akai] during cold storage
Author(s) -
Petrou Petros,
Soteriou Georgios,
Schouten Rob E.,
Kyriacou Marios C.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.831
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1365-2621
pISSN - 0950-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2012.03195.x
Subject(s) - food science , chemistry , flesh , lightness , loin , sugar , horticulture , biology , physics , optics
Summary The impact of removing the rind from fresh‐cut watermelon slices was assessed on the quality of the product during storage at 4 °C for 9 days. Flesh lycopene declined from 55.4 to 47.9 mg kg −1 f.w. and colour lightness ( L *) increased from 43.2 to 45.8 after 2 days of storage. Initial heart and placental flesh firmness increased from 7.3 and 9.8 N , respectively, to 9.5 and 12.8 N after 9 days, but were unaffected by rind processing. Electrolyte leakage from placental tissue was unaffected by storage and rind. Rind presence limited juice run‐off by 47.2% and maintained mean total soluble sugar concentration in the slices at 86.0 mg mL −1 as opposed to 76.8 mg mL −1 in rind‐less slices. Change in the quality was most pronounced between 0 and 2 day of storage. Removing the rind accelerated senescence and off‐flavour production, while the presence of rind improved the overall storage stability of fresh‐cut watermelon slices.