FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY OF PRESERVED PICKLES

Abstract

The problem at hand is dealing with the changes that occure in cucumber pickles during fermentation and storage, where the softening caused many problems for cucumber pickles during long storage period. Food Science From such point of view this study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of calcium chloride concentrations (from 0.1 to 0.3%) on retarding softening of Giza 6 and Giza 9 cucumbers during fetmentation and storage in two levels of sodium chloride (5.0% and 10.0%). The effect of blanching for 3 min at 80°C of cucumbers prior to fermentation on improving the quality of the products was also studied. The evaluation paramaters duriiig fermentation and storage period were moisture content, pH, titratable acidity, total anreducing sugars, NaCl concentrations, firmness as . weli Pectin methyl esterase (PME) and Polygalacturonase (PG) activities. The obtained data showed that, moisture contents of different treated cucumber pickles were reduced gradually during 72 hr. <•f fennentation and 6 mon. of storage.