MINIMALLY PROCESSED POMEGRANATE SEEDS

Ready-to-eat pomegranate seeds were prepared and their quality attribu tes and appearance was followed during storage for 7 d under different conditions. Quality attributes, titratable acidity, total soluble sol ids, L values, absorbance at 510 nm (anthocyanin content) and absorba nce at 446 nm (brown metabolites) were analysed. Respiratory activity, appearance of the seeds (shriveling and browning), and weight loss we re also evaluated. The influence of different washing treatments, stor age temperatures (8, 4 and 1 degrees C) and actively or passively modi fied atmosphere packaging on the quality of the minimally processed po megranate seeds was studied. Washing the seeds with chlorine and chlor ine followed by ascorbic and citric acid were selected, and storage at 1 degrees C led to the best quality preservation. The best overall re sults were obtained for seeds washed with chlorine (100 mg/kg) plus an tioxidants (5 g/L ascorbic acid and 5 g/L citric acid), and sealed in oriented polypropylene film using nit initial atmosphere actively modi fied to 20 mL/L O-2 and 0 mL/L CO2. Under these conditions, minimally processed pomegranate seeds maintained good quality and appearance for 7 d of storage at 1 degrees C without fungal attacks or off-flavour d evelopment. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited