Effect of kojic acid and tartaric acid on browning and crunchiness of sprouts

Abstract

A study to investigate the effectiveness of anti browning agents from different compound groups in inhibiting enzymatic browning and loss in crunchiness of bean sprouts was conducted under laboratory conditions. Kojic acid (KA), a member of phenolic acids group and tartaric acid (TA) which belongs to carboxylic acid group were tested on bean sprouts under ambient temperature (28 C) and stored for 24 hours. The results of this study have shown that kojic acid as low as 0.005% can inhibit loss in crunchiness of bean sprouts while 0.0035% tartaric acid also gave positive effect. Only seven combinations of treatment exhibited significant effect in restraining the loss of crunchiness. These treatments were 0.02% KA+ 0.007% TA, 0.02% KA+ 0.0035% TA, 0.01% KA+ 0.007% TA , 0.01% KA+ 0.0035% TA and 0.01 % KA+ 0.0017% TA. However, none of the treatments show significant effect on preventing bean sprouts from the occurrence of enzymatic browning. This study suggests that 0.0035% of tartaric acid is found to be the most cost effective treatment in maintaining crunchiness of bean sprouts.