Screening quality and browning susceptibility of five artichoke cultivars for fresh‐cut processing

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Artichoke is a rich source of bioactive compounds, mainly phenols, in the Mediterranean diet, but its consumption is limited by the complexity of time-consuming trimming operations. Fresh-cut processing would therefore add convenience to its consumption, even though the severity of post-cutting browning of artichoke pieces is still a major problem. Since susceptibility to browning may vary widely among genotypes, the choice of the cultivar is a very critical step in the fresh-cut process. In this study, five different Italian cultivars (C3, Catanese, Tema, Violetto Foggiano and Violetto Sardo) were screened for their initial quality and composition, and their post-cutting performance during storage at 5• C and 20 • C.

Effect of packaging film and antibrowning solution on quality maintenance of minimally processed globe artichoke heads

“…The higher levels of antioxidant activity in treated samples might be a response of the DPPH reagent to ascorbic acid (Cabezas-Serrano et al, 2009). Nevertheless, samples treated with antioxidant solution maintained significantly higher antioxidant activity (P ≤ 0.05) throughout the storage time (Fig.…”

“…The high browning rate of the edible portion, mainly after cutting, restricts the shelf life of fresh-cut heads due to a loss in visual quality (Cabezas-Serrano et al, 2009). Such phenomenon may be prevented by inhibiting the activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme through a proper antibrowning agent (Amodio, Cabezas-Serrano, Peri, & Colelli, 2011).…”

“…In this sense, globe artichoke has shown to possess 'in vitro' hepatoprotective, anticarcinogenic, antioxidative, antibacterial, anti-HIV, bile-expelling, and diuretic properties as well as the ability to inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis and low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation (Lattanzio, Kroon, Linsalata, & Cardinali, 2009). Although such health-promoting characteristics make globe artichoke an important ingredient in human diet, the complex trimming operations limit its fresh consumption (CabezasSerrano, Amodio, Cornacchia, Rinaldi, & Colelli, 2009). This boasts the development of new products, such as minimally processed ones, which could increase the level of globe artichoke consumption thanks to their ease of preparation and convenience.…”

“…Given the available literature data (Amodio et al, 2011;Cabezas-Serrano et al, 2009;Del Nobile et al, 2009), the aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of three packaging materials combined with two antibrowning solutions on the quality maintenance of minimally processed globe artichoke heads of two cultivars, grown in a typical Italian environment for this crop. The effectiveness of the adopted processing procedure was assessed by monitoring both physical (product browning and colour, weight loss), physiological (headspace gas composition), chemical (total polyphenol content and antioxidant activity) and microbiological (total mesophilic bacteria, yeasts and moulds, Enterobacteriaceae) parameters during refrigerated storage.…”

Qualitative and healthy traits of different Italian typical artichoke genotypes

“…Anyway, Veneto genotypes showed a higher ascorbic acid content than others (Cabezas-Serrano, Amodio, Cornacchia, Rinaldi, & Colelli, 2009;Gil-Izquierdo et al, 2001) and this result led us to consider them suitable also for the processing industry. Several studies, in fact, reported the role of ascorbic acid in preventing browning, as found for lettuce (Heimdal, Kuhn, Poll, & Larsen, 1995) and other vegetables (Reyes, Villareal, & Cisneros-Zevallos, 2007), and browning is one of the most important problems of artichoke processing.…”