PROCESSAMENTO E AVALIAÇÃO DE POLPA E SUCO SOBRE OS ATRIBUTOS FÍSICO-QUÍMICOS DE ACEROLA (MALPIGHIA EMARGINATA)

Abstract

In Brazil, another 14 million tons of fruit were produced in 2022, with acerola being one of these fruits. Acerola offers several types of use, allowing several possibilities in processing within industries. Processing is very important, as the demand to preserve and distribute food, before it loses its quality, has been one of the main functions of industries. There are several changes in food, such as chemical, physical and microbiological changes. Thus, the objective of this work was to identify and evaluate the effects of grinding and pasteurization (pulp and nectar) on the physical-chemical attributes of acerola in natura. The acerolas used were obtained at Instituto Federal Goiano – Campus Morrinhos, the fruits were analyzed biometrically. The pulp and nectar as well as the fruit were analyzed for vitamin C, soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH, moisture and ash. The results showed that the processing of the nectar had a lot of influence compared to the fruit in natura, the contents of soluble solids, acidity, pH and vitamin C decreased in the processing, mainly due to the addition of water and the slow pasteurization process, since the acerola pulp showed results close to those found in the fruit.