An emerging pretreatment technology for reducing postharvest loss of vegetables-a case study of red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) drying

Abstract

Drying and pretreatment play key roles in reducing postharvest losses and improving food security. High humidity hot air impingement blanching (HHAIB) was employed in the present work to pretreat red peppers and its effects on natural micro flora, quality and drying characteristics of red pepper were evaluated. Results showed that the aerobic bacteria were decreased to1.72 log CFU/g; meanwhile, the mold and yeast populations were under the detection limit (<1.0 log CFU/g) after blanching for 30 s. Moreover, HHAIB treatment enhanced the drying rate, and the drying time was reduced by 14%-29% compared to the untreated samples. Weibull model precisely described the drying behavior of red pepper. HHAIB treatment (within 30 s) caused the decreases in ascorbic acid contents. At the same time, there was no significant (p > 0.05) effect on the surface color and natural pigment contents. The findings indicate that HHAIB pretreatment is a promising technique for increasing red pepper microbial safety and drying rate.

Keywords:

• Blanching
• pretreatment
• postharvest loss
• aerobic bacteria
• mold and yeast
• drying

Disclosure of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31860455 and 31760471), the 2115 Talent Development Program of China Agricultural University, and Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (20212BAB215040).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31860455 and 31760471), the 2115 Talent Development Program of China Agricultural University, and Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (20212BAB215040).