Abstract

Effect of Packaging Materials on Quality Characteristics of Osmotically Pretreated Microwave Assisted Dried Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annum L.)

Sachidananda Swain, D. V. K. Samuel and Abhijit Kar

The present study was under taken to investigate the effect of packaging materials and storage conditions on quality of capsicum (red and yellow) dried using microwave drying. The samples were heat sealed and packaged in: polypropylene (PP), Laminated Aluminum (Al) and High density polyethylene (HDPE). Then, these were stored at ambient atmosphere for four month and at every fifteen days, the quality parameters such as browning index (BI), total color difference (TCD), water activity (Aw), moisture content (MC), total carotenoid (Tc) and Sensory Score (SS) were measured. The result indicated that storage period had significant effect (P<0.05) on response variables after 45-60 days of storage except sensory score. Laminated Aluminum (Al) was least affected by the ambient environment followed by HDPE and PP having low water vapor transmission rate (WVTR).