The impact of cold chain temperature abuses on the quality of frozen strawberri...

• Author(s): Cruz, Rui M. S. ; Vieira, Margarida C. ; Silva, Cristina L. M.
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/14213
• Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Subject(s): Strawberries; Frozen storage; Temperature abuses; Vitamin C; Colour
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The quality of frozen foods can be negatively a ected if improper storage and distribution temperatures are allowed. The objective of this study was to investigate the e ect of freeze-thaw cycles, which may occur in the cold chain, on colour (Lab, Total Colour Di erences (TCD), chroma and hue angle) and vitamin C (ascorbic and dehydroascorbic acids) content of frozen strawberries (Fragaria ananassa, Duschesne, cv. Selva). A plan of temperature abuses (TAs) was established, based on a real situation, and applied to frozen strawberries during a four month frozen storage period. The results showed that the lightness (L) was the only parameter that was not signi cantly a ected by range of TAs studied. The colour showed some variation on the parameters a, b, TCD, chroma and hue angle. During TAs, ascorbic acid decreased about 75% and dehydroascorbic acid increased 73%. The non-abused strawberry samples showed better overall appearance than the abused samples. This work contributes to an understanding of the quality changes of frozen strawberries that might occur during frozen storage and cold chain distribution.