Estudio del efecto de un recubrimiento comestible y su incidencia en el tiempo de vida útil de la uvilla (Physalis peruviana L.)

Abstract

The increasingly demanding need to have minimally processed fruit with better physical, chemical, and microbiological quality by the consumers, just as the importance of fruit consuming to prevent chronicillness, evidence the need to study minimum treatment process as key to develop ways that allows a natural presentation of the fruit, keeping its nutritive qualities intact, also allowing a decrease in loses, whether is in quantity or postharvest qualities and food born illness; this is why the investigation took on a path of minimal processing through technology combined with eatable coatings previous to UV radiation with short wave length UV-C, with the goal that the fruit studied, organic golden berry (Physalis peruviana L.), improves its sensory features like the microbiological so that the shelf life would be prolonged. With this purpose, the golden berry was washed and disinfected with UV-C at a distance of 30 cm for 7.50 min, then, the fruit was coated by an immersion technique with the eatable films for the determined time. The factor study was edible coating; the edible films were formed by different quantities of glycerol, glucose, sucrose, and jelly. The best results of the evaluation of the physic -chemical, microbiological and sensory parameters were treatment A₁:(3 percent jelly+0.25 percent de citric acid+0.6 percent tween 20+1 percent de glycerol; 5 min) and treatment A₆:(3 percent jelly+0.25 percent citric acid+30 percent de glucose+ 70 percent de sucrose; 10 min). The best treatments were stored in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, perforated in order to avoid condensation at a cooling temperature of 4 Celsius degree. The parameters taken to measure the fruits shelf life were microbiological and texture which, for treatment A₆ was a period of 14 days and for treatment A₁ 25 days, which allowed the reaching of the desired goal.