Effects of selected anti-browning treatments on the storage quality of fresh-cut banana

Abstract

Anti-browning agents are the edible chemical that can be used to reduce the damage and spoilage that occurs on the fresh produces due to enzymatic browning when the produces are being cut especially for minimally process (MP) industry. Enzymatic browning is a chemical reaction which occurs in fruits and vegetables by the enzyme polyphenoloxidase which reacts in the presence of oxygen, which resulted in brown pigments, which is also known as o-quinone. Enzymatic browning is detrimental to quality, particularly in postharvest storage of fresh fruits and fruits products. Enzymatic browning may be responsible for up to 50% of all losses during fruit and vegetables production. The effectiveness of three different anti-browning agents were investigated individually or in combination on the MP sliced banana. The anti-browning agents used in this study were glutathione (0.5 M), N-acetylcysteine (0.05 M), citric acid (0.5 M), combination of glutathione (0.5 M) and citric acid (0.5 M), combination of N-acetylcysteine (0.05 M) and citric acid (0.5 M) where MP sliced banana without any treatment served as Control. The storage quality of the tested MP sliced bananas were assayed in terms of their total color change and physico-chemical characteristic (texture, titratable acidity, pH, percentage of weight loss, total soluble solid and browning index) over the chilled storage at 5±1°C; relative humidity (RH) 95% for 15 days. All the treatments showed increasing patterns in total color change, pH, percentage of weight loss, total soluble solid and browning index over the storage. However, texture and titratable acidity were decreasing. The rate of increasing and/or decreasing of each parameters were different among the treatments. The combination of Nacetylcysteine (0.05 M) and citric acid (0.5 M) was the most effective inhibitory of browning activities in sliced bananas.