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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #274217
Title: Quality of frozen fruit bars manufactured through infrared pre-dehydration

Author
item TIAN, HONGPING - University Of California
item Pan, Zhongli
item ZHU, YI - University Of California
item McHugh, Tara
item YING, YIBIN - Zhejiang University

Submitted to: Journal of Food Processing and Preservation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/19/2012
Publication Date: 4/1/2012
Citation: Tian, H., Pan, Z., Zhu, Y., Mchugh, T.H., Ying, Y. 2012. Quality of frozen fruit bars manufactured through infrared pre-dehydration. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-4549.2012.00720.x.

Interpretive Summary: This research reports a new processing method for manufacturing frozen restructured whole apple and strawberry bars by partial dehydration, using infrared (IR) heating, followed by restructuring and freezing. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effect of IR partial dehydration on the quality of restructured frozen apple and strawberry bars. The results showed that IR drying reduced the moisture in the fruits quickly and caused partial degradation of total phenolic and vitamin C. However, the final product concentration of total phenolic and vitamin C significantly increased in the finished fruit bars due to the moisture removal. Both frozen apple and strawberry bars had desirable appearance and hardness when their water activities were below 0.97.

Technical Abstract: In this study, frozen restructured whole apple and strawberry bars were manufactured by partial dehydration, using infrared (IR) heating, followed by restructuring and freezing. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effect of IR partial dehydration on the quality of restructured frozen apple and strawberry bars. Apples and strawberries were cut into 6 mm thick slices before being dried at 50°C to various moisture levels: from 89.0% to 75.3% for apples and from 92.7% to 75.3% (wet basis) for strawberries. IR drying reduced the moisture in the fruits quickly and caused partial degradation of total phenolic and vitamin C. However, the final product concentration of total phenolic and vitamin C significantly increased in the finished fruit bars due to the moisture removal. Both frozen apple and strawberry bars had desirable appearance and hardness when their water activities were below 0.97.