Processing of cauliflower by ohmic heating: influence of precooking on firmness

✍ Scribed by Eliot, Sandrine C; Goullieux, Adeline; Pain, Jean-Pierre

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 258 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(199908)79:11<1406::aid-jsfa378>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

The feasibility of processing cauli¯ower by ohmic heating was investigated. Firstly, cauli¯ower ¯orets were precooked in tap water at low temperatures (40±70 °C) for 0 to 60 min. A control sample was cooked at 95 °C for 5 min. No signi®cant textural differences were found between samples treated at 40 or 50 °C and fresh samples, but the ®rmness of samples cooked above 60 °C decreased. The effect of precooking time was not found to be signi®cant. Secondly, low temperature precooking was performed in salted water for 30 min and followed by ohmic heating (holding time 30 s at 135 °C). After ohmic heating, ¯orets pretreated at low temperatures were ®rmer than control samples. The ®rmness of ¯orets precooked at 40 °C or 50°C was considerably increased (b300%) compared to those precooked at 95 °C. Low-temperature precooking increased the ®rmness of cauli¯ower subjected to ohmic heating. The experimental results show that ohmic heating combined with low-temperature precooking in saline solutions offers a viable solution to high temperature/short time sterilisation of cauli¯ower ¯orets.