Wafa Hajji^1,2*, Hela Gliguem¹, Chaima Rekik¹, Sihem Bellagha¹ and Karim Allaf²

¹Research Unit PATIO (UR17AGR01): Promoting Tunisian Natural and Agri-food Heritage through Innovation, National Institute of Agronomy of Tunisia, University of Carthage, Tunisia
²La Rochelle University, Laboratory of Engineering Science for Environment (LaSIE), France

*Corresponding Author: Wafa Hajji, Research Unit PATIO (UR17AGR01): Promoting Tunisian Natural and Agri-food Heritage through Innovation, National Institute of Agronomy of Tunisia, University of Carthage, Tunisia.

Received: November 29, 2021; Published: December 20, 2021

Abstract

Dehydrofreezing process involves partially removing water before freezing. This treatment has been proposed in order to lessen the negative impacts of conventional or even accelerated freezing, especially on color quality and phytochemical compounds of high-water content fruits, such as strawberries. Indeed, in such cases, conventional freezing and thawing processes result in severe damage of the integrity of product’s cell structure due to the formation of ice crystals, which induce bioactive compounds losses.

Fresh samples and samples previously dehydrated up to different water contents (1, and 0.3 g/g db) were frozen at constant temperature of -30 °C and thawed at room temperature. The effects of water content (W) were investigated in terms of phenolic compounds retention and color examination, after thawing process. The obtained results show that lower sample water content implied equally: higher total polyphenol content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC) and higher total anthocyanins content (TAC). Moreover, the impact of moisture level on color characteristics and browning index was significant and very important with drying intensity. Therefore, partial removal of water is a promising solution to reduce the negative impacts of freezing on strawberry quality with total independence of freezing process and to improve phytochemical compounds retention.

Keywords: Strawberry Fruit; Pre-drying; Freezing; Phenolic Compounds; Color

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Citation

Citation: Wafa Hajji., et al. “Dehydrofreezing: An Integrated Process Towards Better Bioactive Compounds Retention in Strawberry Fruits". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 6.1 (2022): 86-94.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Wafa Hajji., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.