Microbial, Physical, Chemical and Sensory Qualities of Minimally Processed and Modified Atmosphere Packaged “Ready To Eat” Orange Segments

Abstract

Oranges were sanitized, dried, peeled and segmented. Undamaged segments were packed under passive and active MAP with low and high oxygen in PP trays sealed with CPP/OPP film. Overall quality of the segments were monitored for 25 days at 4°C. The results showed that orange segments could be stored under passive and active MAP without significant microbial growth. There were slight changes in acidity and Brix (p ≤ 0.05) with no significant changes in pH and sugar. The hardness increased and color (L, a, b) decreased during storage. Orange segments remained in a commercially viable condition for 10 days under MAP.

Keywords:

• Modified atmosphere packaging
• Minimal processing
• Orange segments
• Quality

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper is produced from the part of master thesis of the first author completed at Mustafa Kemal University. The authors acknowledge project funding provided by Commission of Scientific Research Projects of Mustafa Kemal University (Project No. 06 M 1501) and Prime Ministry State Planning Organization in Turkey (Project No. 03 K 120860). We are grateful to Nafiz Celiktas for statistical analysis and Elif Erturk for her help in sugar analysis. We also thank A-Pack (Istanbul, Turkey) for providing packaging film, Huhtamaki (Istanbul, Turkey) for providing PP trays, and Citexco (Hatay, Turkey) for providing oranges. The authors are thankful to Gulbahar Yetis, Huseyin Senyurt, Suleyman Uzan, and Hamit Artar for their help in the process and laboratory analysis.