Authors
Title
Abstract
The objective of the research study was to determine the effect of time period (9 weeks) and frozen storage temperatures (-20 ºC and -80 ºC) on the content of some selected ingredients (L-ascorbic acid – LAA, the total of L-ascorbic acid and L-dehydroascorbic acid – LAA and DHAA, and dry matter), general acidity, and texture of sweet peppers (yellow and red) of the ‘California’ variety. During frozen storage of the whole pepper fruits, a gradual increase was reported in the content of dry matter. It varied significantly depending on the time period and storage temperature. In the peppers stored at -80 ºC, the final content of dry matter was significantly lower than that in the fruits stored at -20 ºC. The increase in the content of dry matter in the fruits of yellow and red pepper stored at a lower temperature was 6.8 % and 9.3 %, respectively; as for the second variant of a higher temperature, the increase in the content of dry matter was significantly higher and amounted to 14.8 % (red peppers) and 17 % (yellow peppers). Those results prove a lower loss of water in pepper fruits stored at a lower temperature. A decrease was reported in the content of L-ascorbic acid and in the total of L-ascorbic acid and L-dehydroascorbic acid; that decrease was the highest during the initial period of storage. After the experiment was accomplished, the average losses of L-ascorbic acid in the red peppers stored at temperatures of -80 ºC and -20 ºC were 37 % and 41 %, respectively, while in the yellow peppers: 28 % and 35 %. The decrease in the total of LAA and DHAA in red the peppers stored at temperatures of -80 ºC and -20 ºC was 49 % and 56 %, respectively, while in the yellow peppers: 41 % and 43 %. The final content of the total acidity in the peppers stored at the two temperatures was similar, but a significantly higher content of L-ascorbic acid was found in the fruits of the two types of peppers stored at a temperature of -80 ºC. As for yellow peppers stored at the two storing temperature variants, their total acidity increased ca. twice from 0.26 to 0.49 mg/100g of malic acid. As for the red peppers stored at temperatures of -20 and -80 ºC, their total acidity rose from 0.25 to 0.54 and to 0.52 mg/100g of malic acid, respectively. The acidity value changed irrespective of the applied temperature of frozen storage. The texture of peppers changed in particular during the first week of the frozen storage. Those changes were more intense in the fruits stored at -20 ºC.
Keywords
frozen pepper, vitamin C, dry matter, acidity, texture