Physical, Microbial, and Chemical Quality of Hot-Air-Dried Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Chips during Storage

Abstract

Recent efforts have been made to develop hot-air-dried chips as a value-added product for persimmon fruit (Diospyros kaki). However, the long-term quality of this product and its dependence on processing conditions and packaging type have not yet been explored. Hence, in this work, chips were prepared from “Hachiya” persimmon fruit in 2 ways: 2 mm thickness fruit slices, hot-air-dried for 5 hours (Preparation 2–5), and 6 mm slices, dried for 10 hours (Preparation 6–10). The dried chips were then packaged into 2 bag types (plastic zip-top and metallized polyethylene terephthalate (Met-PET) with desiccant packets), stored under ambient conditions, and sampled for moisture-related, microbial, texture, and chemical quality traits throughout the 1-year storage study. It was found that–with the exception of a marked decrease in ascorbic acid (vitamin C)—all 4 Preparation/Packaging combinations yielded products that maintained acceptable color, microbial, nutritional, and textural quality throughout the entire study. Compared to Preparation 2–5 chips, Preparation 6–10 chips generally had lower contents of healthy nutrients—antioxidant compounds, ascorbic acid, and carotenoids. Evidence of invertase activity was found for Preparation 6–10 chips but not for Preparation 2–5 chips. For both preparations, the contents of ascorbic acid and carotenoids experienced time-dependent decreases. Plastic zip-top bags and Met-PET bags with desiccant packets performed equally well as packaging for most of the quality metrics tracked during this study. Overall, this work has demonstrated that hot-air-drying of persimmon slices is a promising approach to create a value-added product with at least one year of shelf-life.

Texture of Hot-Air-Dried Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Chips: Instrumental, Sensory, and Consumer Input for Product Development

“…Thus, the final goal of this work was to address this knowledge gap and give growers/processors some guidance for cultivar selection for hot-air drying. This goal is in support of a larger project on enhancing the marketability of persimmons grown in the U.S. State of California; other aspects of the larger project have been reported in our previous works [ 1 , 2 , 30 ].…”

“…To encourage more widespread consumption of persimmons, researchers have endeavored to develop a value-added product (a hot-air-dried persimmon “chip”) that is shelf-stable and easily produced. Several groups [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ] have previously conducted exploratory studies of sliced, hot-air-dried persimmon chips. However, in-depth information on the texture of these products is lacking.…”

Utilisation of Diospyros kaki L. (persimmon) as a functional ingredient to produce functional foods: a review

“…Persimmon fruit is one such fruit that has gained considerable attention as a potentially beneficial functional ingredient (Vinha et al , 2021). Owing to its sensory properties, rich nutrient content and potential industrial applications, Persimmon is a treasured in many countries (Milczarek et al , 2020; Santos et al , 2018; Kluge and Tessmar, 2018). It is an excellent source of various macro- and micro-nutrients and possesses lower fat content (Barea-Álvarez et al , 2016).…”

From Diospyros kaki L. (Persimmon) Phytochemical Profile and Health Impact to New Product Perspectives and Waste Valorization

“…It was discovered that apart from a clear decline in ascorbic acid, all four preparation and packaging combinations generated products that retained adequate nutritional, microbial, color, and texture quality all the way through the whole study. It is suggested that hot-air-drying persimmon slices is an encouraging method to create a product with added-value that has a minimum of a one-year shelf-life [ 177 ]. Partial least-squares regression (PLS) was employed to create models that predicted the sensory characteristics from instrumental measurements, and models that predicted the consumer liking score from both instrumental measurements and sensory attributes.…”