Effect of peeling and segmentation on quality of heat-treated white asparagus during storage

Author: Dimitrios Gerasopoulos ¹, Anastasios S. Siomos ^2*, Athanasios Koukounaras ² and Pavlos Tsouvaltzis ²

Received 16 June 2009, accepted 5 October 2009.

Abstract

The present work investigated the possibility of utilization of white asparagus spear segments as a minimally processed product. Freshly harvested spears (cv. Dariana) were subjected to hot water treatment (by immersion in water at 55°C for 3 min), followed by peeling (or left unpeeled-control), cutting in 7 cm segments (tip, upper, mid, lower and base) and tray-packaging (with a 16 µm stretch film) before storage at 3°C for 6 days. Peeled segments accumulated less CO₂ and ethylene during storage and had decreased lightness and chroma as well as higher hue angle values than the unpeeled segments. Tip segments accumulated more CO₂ and ethylene during storage and had higher soluble solids content, titratable acidity, antioxidant capacity and color attributes of less lightness or higher chroma and hue angle values than the mid and base segments. Spear segments showed lower pH and titratable acidity, higher antioxidant capacity and lower chroma and hue angle values after storage. The sensory evaluation showed that the peeled segments tended to retain better color, flavor, texture and overall acceptability than the peeled ones. The tip segments had higher bitterness but lower color and overall acceptability scores than the bottom segments. The mean overall acceptability scores of all segments, however, were above the borderline indicating that they can be utilized as an unpeeled or peeled minimally processed product.