Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Effects of different sorbic acid and moisture levels on chemical and microbial qualities of sun-dried apricots during storage

4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Food Processing & Technology

August 10-12, 2015 London, UK

Sumeyye Alagoz1, Meltem Turkyilmaz2 and Mehmet Ozkan2

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Food Process Technol

Abstract:

Sun-dried apricots (SDAs) containing various sorbic acid (SA) (0, 488–530 and 982–1087 mg/kg) and moisture [intermediate (271–
278 g/kg and high (341–344 g/kg)] levels were stored in the consumer-size packages with very low moisture and gas permeability
at various temperatures (4–30°C) for 10 months. Changes in chemical (brown color and β-carotene) and microbiological qualities
of SDAs during storage were investigated. Moisture content, SA concentration and storage temperature showed significant effect on
chemical and microbiological qualities of SDAs. Removal of SA from SDAs was fitted to a first-order kinetic model (R2=0.799–0.966)
and the highest SA loss was determined in SDAs stored at 30°C. Interestingly, SA oxidation protected β-carotene from oxidation;
therefore, the lowest β-carotene degradation occurred in SDAs stored at 30°C. Also, increase in moisture content led to 1.3–1.9 times
slower rate of brown colour formation in SDAs. On the contrary, increase in brown colour formation was found with increase in SA
content. As storage temperature increased, brown colour formation increased. No spoilage was observed in SDAs with intermediate
moisture content at all storage temperatures. On the contrary, SDAs containing no sorbic acid and high moisture were spoiled by
mould and yeast at 20 and 30oC in a month and at 4 and 10oC in 1 to 3 months. sorbic acid must be used for the prevention of
microbial growth in SDAs with high moisture. As a result, 500 mg SA/kg is sufficient to prevent the microbial spoilage and brown
colour formation.

Biography :

Sumeyye Alagoz was graduated from Department of Food Engineering at Ankara University as honor student in 2011, and then she completed her MS studies with the
scholarship at the age of 25 years from Department of Food Engineering at Ankara University in 2014. She worked as a research assistant in the Department of Food
Engineering at Çankırı Karatekin University for 11 months in 2014. Currently, she has been working as food engineering in Republic of Turkey Ministry of Food, Agriculture
and Livestock in Food Control Laboratory Directorate, Bolu since January 2015. At the same time, she has been doing her PhD in the Department of Food Engineering at
Ankara University since February 2014.