BALANCING MACROMINERAL COMPOSITION OF FRESH-PACK CUCUMBER PICKLES TO IMPROVE NUTRITIONAL QUALITY AND MAINTAIN FLAVOR

The macromineral nutritional balance of fresh-pack dill cucumber pickl es was improved without loss of flavor quality. A product with flavor acceptability equal to the original product was obtained if NaCl was r educed by 40%, from 2.0% to 1.2%. To replace the 0.8% reduction in NaC l 0.8% KCl was added. CaCl2 and MgCl2 were added proportionately to ma tch the daily value (DV) of the added KCl. In addition to changes in m ineral composition, low levels of both citric acid and hot pepper sauc e were added to improve flavor acceptability. The flavor acceptability of dill pickles was rated higher (P <0.05) than the 2.0% NaCl control when the NaCl concentration was reduced 20% from 2.0 to 1.6%, and 0.4 % KCl was added to replace the NaCl. Again, CaCl2 and MgCl2 were added at a level which gave the same proportion of the DVs of these mineral s as 0.4% KCl. The highest flavor acceptability in the product with 20 % less NaCl was obtained when only, citric acid was added as a flavor modifier.