Evaluation of quality parameters of frozen acerola pulp commercialized in Londrina-PR

Resumo

Acerola or west indian cherry (Malpighia emarginata DC) is a tropical fruit with high economic potential, and nutritional relevance due to its high vitamin C content. The continuous increase on fruits consumption, associated to the improvements on the quality control of foods indicated that the commercialization of frozen tropical fruits pulps should continue to increase, due to its convenience and nutritional appeal. Nevertheless, due to its composition, fruit pulps are a good substrate for the microbial growth, which can deteriorate the product, and cause harm to the human health. Therefore, it is extremely important to evaluate the quality of the commercialized fruit pulps, in order to verify their accordance to the legislation requirements. This work aimed to evaluate the quality of two brands of frozen acerola pulps (A and B) commercialized in the Londrina city, state of Paraná, Brazil. For this purpose, microbiology analysis (moulds and yeasts, total coliforms, and termotolerants counts), and physicochemical analysis (titratable acidity, pH, and total soluble solids) were performed. Analyses were done on five different samples of 5 Kg each. The two brands analyzed were in accordance to the Brazilian legislation requirements in relation to the parameters of quality and identity, and did not present microbiological contamination, which indicated safety in their consumption.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14685/rebrapa.v3i1.65