Abstract:
The quality deterioration of agricultural produces with
the time is a major problem in storage. Modified atmosphere
packaging is used as an alternative technique for the chemical
preservation of food products. This study investigated the efficiency
of modified atmosphere treatments with carbon dioxide (CO2) or
nitrogen (N2) gas for the quality preservation of dehydrated jack
fruit. The color, moisture content, pH, Brix value, titratable acidity,
and microbial quality of the modified atmosphere treated dehydrated
jack fruits were investigated. The color of the dehydrated jack
fruit did not show any significant difference (p>0.05) before and
60 days after treated with 99% CO2 gas. The yellowness (b*
value) of the dehydrated jack fruit samples shown a significant
difference (p<0.05) to the 99% N2 treatment but lightness (L* value)
and redness (a* values) did not have any significant difference
(p>0.05) to the treatment. The modified atmosphere storage did
not have any significance (p>0.05) on moisture content, pH, and
titratable acidity values of jackfruit but Brix value and microbial
population have shown significant difference (p>0.05) during the
60 days of storage at 27 ± 2 °C and 75 ± 5% RH. In conclusion,
modified atmosphere gases preserved quality characteristics of dried
jackfruit than hermetic storage condition. Since, both inert gases
have same effect on the quality characteristics of jackfruits without
considerable significant.
