Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the reduction of life time and quality of poppy seeds considering a mechanical damage, which may occur during harvesting.
Vienna, Vienna, Austria Poppy seeds were crushed to receive 90%, 80%, 70%, 60% and 50% intact seeds, the undamaged 100% intact seeds served as controls. The samples were stored at 40 °C for 175 d and oxidation experiments performed periodically by assessing conjugated dienes, p‐anisidine reactive products, the iodine value, the acid value and γ‐tocopherol content.
With increasing degree of mechanical damage the shelf life declined, the oxidation products were formed more rapidly and the main antioxidant in poppy seeds γ‐tocopherol was consumed. Considering the reduction of life time by including all quality parameters the shelf life of the 10% damaged seeds was reduced by 50.5%. This reduction was reached up to 82% for the 50% damaged seeds compared to the control. A high correlation was found between the increase in oxidation products and the degradation of γ‐tocopherol.
This study show that increased damage during harvesting (10‐50%) is responsible for a faster loss of product quality especially in seeds containing high amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids like poppy seeds.