Preservation of raw watermelon juice up to one year by hyperbaric storage at room temperature

• Autor(a) principal: Lemos, Álvaro T.
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Ribeiro, Ana C., Delgadillo, Ivonne, Saraiva, Jorge A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/37697
• topic: Hyperbaric storage; Refrigeration; Room temperature; Shelf-life extension

Raw watermelon juice previously studied for 21 days by hyperbaric storage (HS) at 75 MPa and uncontrolled/naturally variable room temperature (RT ≈ 25 °C), was kept further under 75 MPa/≈25 °C for one year. The results revealed that compared to the results previously reported (21 days), HS up to one year caused an additional reduction of initial loads (total aerobic mesophiles/psychrophiles), by at least ~1.0 log CFU/mL (to below the detection limit), while Enterobacteriacae/yeasts and moulds were kept below the detection limit (1 log CFU/mL). The microbial shelf-life was so increased up to at least one year, whilst with refrigeration the juice reached unaccepted levels just in 7 days (previously reported). Total soluble solids and pH under HS were close to the initial values, while cloudiness and colour presented only slight variations. Nevertheless, a visual colour evolution was observed. These results indicate hyperbaric storage at room temperature as a clearly more efficient preservation comparatively with refrigeration, showing a good potential to considerably increase the shelf-life of highly perishable foods, while reduce the energy consumption and the environmental impact.