Influence of the Freezing Process on Quality Retention of Frozen Tomato Slices
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Influence of the Freezing Process on Quality Retention of Frozen Tomato Slices THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Qinfan Zhou Graduate Program in Food, Agricultural & Biological Engineering The Ohio State University 2016 Master's Examination Committee: Dr. Dennis R. Heldman, Advisor Dr. Sudhir K. Sastry Dr. Christopher Simons Copyrighted by Qinfan Zhou 2016 Abstract Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important economic plants worldwide. Frozen vegetables and fruits have gained popular nowadays. However, the fragile and complex structure of the tomato is very sensitive to ice crystal formation of water during phase change. The overall objective of this investigation was to optimize the freezing conditions required to achieve maximum retention of the quality attributes of frozen-thawed tomato slices. Fresh-cut Roma tomato were sliced into pieces with the thickness of 4.5 mm and pre-treated with CaCl2 solutions in concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 4.0 g/100g. The tomato slices were then frozen in either a dry-ice ethanol bath, liquid nitrogen or an air blast freezer to achieve a significant range of “time-to freeze”. The various cold media were used to reduce the geometric center temperature of the slices from 25℃ to -18°C. The frozen tomatoes slices were stored in freezer for temperature equilibration at -18 °C for 12 hours before thawing at ambient temperature for measurement of texture and mass loss. The results from the experimental measurements indicated that reducing the “time-to-freeze” (increasing freezing rates) was not sufficient to increase the hardness retention of tomato slices. However, the calcium chloride solutions with calcium concentration ranging from 2.4% to 4.0% improved the hardness retention of the frozen- thawed tomato slices significantly from 48.6% to more than 100.0%, which is ii comparable to the fresh ones. When the maximum hardness retention was obtained, the total moisture loss increased and added up to 11.5% of the initial moisture content. Regarding the demands of maximizing the hardness retention and minimizing the total mass loss, the optimal processing condition was freezing at 45 second “time-to-freeze” after pretreatment with around 2.4% calcium solutions for 3.5 minutes. iii Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my advisor Dr. Dennis R. Heldman for his intelligent and patient guidance, discipline, and warm encouragements and help during my study and research in the Ohio State University. His expertise, insight and enthusiasm on food science and engineering inspired me to continue my career in food processing filed. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Sastry, whose lecture of food engineering and insight of research method inspired me in both research and academia life. I also greatly appreciate the help of Dr. Simons, who led me to a fantastic world of sensory and hedonic properties of food and encouraged me to approach the food processing from a different perspective. I would also like to thank the past and current members of the Heldman lab group: David Phinney, Cheryl Wick, John Frelka, Sravanti Paluri, Helen Bunker, Mengyuan Fan, Ariella Feldman, Yunqi Huang, James Stone, Erica Cramer, Sangeetha Krishnaswamy, Anita Wickramasinghe and Paul Park, for their precious friendship in the group. Special thanks go to David Phinney, Yunqi Huang, John Frelka and Anita Wickramasinghe, for their encouragements and helps during my experiment and thesis writing. None of this research would be possible if they didn’t help me. To my beloved mother and sister, I sincerely express my gratitude for their encouragement and support for my education. iv Vita September 30, 1991 .......................................Born, Jiangsu, China 2013................................................................B.S. of Food Science & Engineering, South China University of Technology Fields of Study Major Field: Food, Agricultural & Biological Engineering v Table of contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….iv Vita………………………………………………………………………………………..v Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………vi List of figures……………………………………………………………………………...x List of tables………………………………………………………………………………xi Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 5 2.1 Tomatoes ............................................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Physiology characteristics of tomato fruits. ....................................................... 5 2.1.2 Chemical composition of tomatoes. .................................................................. 6 2.1.2.1 Lycopene. ................................................................................................... 7 2.1.2.2 Ascorbic acid. .............................................................................................. 8 2.1.2.3 Phenolics. .................................................................................................... 8 2.1.3 Tomato Processing .......................................................................................... 8 2.1.3.1 Processed tomato products............................................................................ 8 2.1.4 Critical quality attributes for processed tomato products ..................................... 9 2.1.4.1 Color and appearance ................................................................................... 9 2.1.4.2 Flavor ....................................................................................................... 10 vi 2.1.4.3 Texture ..................................................................................................... 10 2.1.4.4 Nutritional level ......................................................................................... 15 2.2 Mechanism and Development of Freezing Processing ............................................. 16 2.2.1 Ice crystal formation during freezing ............................................................... 16 2.2.2 Changes of chemical reactions and microbial growth in frozen food system ...... 18 2.2.3 Modern freezing system and freezing system design ........................................ 20 2.2.4 Frozen food quality control ............................................................................ 21 2.2.4.1 Quality control in freezing process .............................................................. 21 2.2.4.2 The effect of storage conditions on the quality of frozen food ....................... 23 2.2.4.3 The effect of thawing methods on the quality of frozen food ......................... 26 2.3 Frozen fruits and vegetables .................................................................................. 28 2.3.1 Typical freezing processing for frozen fruits and vegetables. ............................ 28 2.3.2 Quality of frozen fruits and vegetables. ........................................................... 30 Materials and Methods ................................................................................... 32 3.1 Sample Preparation ............................................................................................... 32 3.1.1 Tomato samples ............................................................................................ 32 3.1.2 Preparation of calcium chloride solution ......................................................... 33 3.2 Sliced tomato calcification..................................................................................... 33 3.3 Freezing ............................................................................................................... 34 3.4 Storage (Temperature equilibrium)......................................................................... 35 vii 3.5 Thawing ............................................................................................................... 35 3.6 Moisture content and mass change determination .................................................... 36 3.6.1 Moisture content measurement for fresh tomato slice ....................................... 36 3.6.2 Mass change measurement for calcium treated tomato slice .............................. 36 3.6.3 Mass loss measurement after thawing ............................................................. 36 3.6.4 Dry matter determination for frozen tomato slices ............................................ 37 3.7 Texture profile analysis method ............................................................................. 37 3.8 Initial Freezing Point Prediction ............................................................................. 38 3.9 Calculation of ice mass fraction ............................................................................. 41 3.10 Statistical Analysis ................................................................................................ 42 Results and Discussion .................................................................................. 43 4.1 The effect of time to freeze on the texture and water retention of frozen tomatoes without treatment ............................................................................................................. 44