Effect of reciprocating agitation thermal processing (RA-TP) on quality of canned tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) puree.
BACKGROUND
Reciprocating agitation thermal processing (RA-TP) is a recent innovation in the field of canning for obtaining high-quality canned food. The objective of this study was to compare RA-TP processing with conventional non-agitated (still) processing with respect to the impact on quality (color, antioxidant capacity, total phenols, carotenoid and lycopene contents) of canned tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) puree.


RESULTS
Owing to a 63-81% reduction in process times as compared with still processing, tomato puree with a brighter red color (closer to fresh) was obtained during RA-TP. At 3 Hz reciprocation frequency, the loss of antioxidant, lycopene and carotenoid contents could be reduced to 34, 8 and 8% respectively as compared with 96, 41 and 52% respectively during still processing. In fact, the phenolic content for RA-TP at 3 Hz was 5% higher than in fresh puree. Quality retention generally increased with an increase in frequency, although the differences were less significant at higher reciprocation frequencies (between 2 and 3 Hz).


CONCLUSIONS
Research findings indicate that RA-TP can be effective to obtain thermally processed foods with high-quality attribute retention. It can also be concluded that a very high reciprocation frequency (>3 Hz) is not necessarily needed and significant quality improvement can be obtained at lower frequencies (∼2 Hz). © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21, 111 Lakeshore, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9, Canada.
Anubhav
A
Pratap Singh
Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21, 111 Lakeshore, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9, Canada.
Anika
A
Singh
Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21, 111 Lakeshore, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9, Canada.
Hosahalli S
HS
Ramaswamy
D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000032:analysis; D003116:Color; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D063427:Food Quality; D057141:Food, Preserved / Q000032:analysis*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D000077276:Lycopene; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000737:chemistry*; D010636:Phenols / Q000032:analysis
D000975:Antioxidants; D010636:Phenols; D002338:Carotenoids; D000077276:Lycopene
antioxidant; carotenoids; quality; reciprocating agitation; thermal processing; tomato puree