Open AccessMicrowave treatment for improved quality and safety of dehydrated pitted apricots
Author(s) -
N. V. Ilyukhina,
A. Yu. Kolokolova,
M. Yu. Kolokolov
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sadovodstvo i vinogradarstvo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2618-9003
pISSN - 0235-2591
DOI - 10.31676/0235-2591-2021-5-55-61
Subject(s) - food science , moisture , chemistry , meal , contamination , shelf life , microorganism , water activity , ingredient , microwave , water content , biology , bacteria , physics , ecology , genetics , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering
Dehydrated pitted apricots are widely used as a ready meal ingredient, which renders control of their quality and safety a relevant issue. Pitted apricots are rich in sugars, moisture and organic acids that serve a good medium for microorganisms. Therefore, these products require presale processing. Microwave treatment proved effective for the processing of raw and finished food products. Its impact on microorganisms depends on variant criteria, including taxonomic affiliation, total counts, dielectric cell properties and the treatment dose. The research aimed to study death kinetics in the native dried apricot surface microflora and its growth during subsequent storage. In this respect, we have studied the microwave treatment impact on dried apricot surface microflora depending on treatment dose and determined the residual microflora growth rate during subsequent storage. The doses of 120, 180 and 240 kJ at a 200 W radiation power have been shown to reduce baseline contamination of dehydrated pitted apricots by three orders of magnitude. Statistical kinetics analyses demonstrated a retarded surface microflora growth during subsequent storage. Microwave doses of 120–240 kJ (accounting for ±0.4 lg CFU/g error) exhibited a similar microflora dynamics in subsequent storage. The exposure of dried apricots to a lowest microwave field of 120 kJ ensured stability of the product microbiological dynamics.