Textural changes in vegetables during thermal processing. II. Effects of acidification and selected pretreatments on texture of turnips

The effect of different preprocessing treatments on the softening of vegetable tissues during acidification of turnips at different temperatures was studied. Texture was characterized by the maximum load force in a puncture test. the different preprocessing treatments considered were blanching alone and coupled with vacuum infusion, freezing/thawing and calcium chloride addition. Samples were acidified at different constant temperatures: 20, 50, 70 and 90C. Results were obtained by comparing the softening occurring for all samples and for non‐preprocessed turnips. It was found that for low temperature processing the final result was mainly due to the effect of the preprocessing itself on the turnip texture while for high temperature processing the effect of the preprocessing on the tissues sensitivity to the processing was more important. Blanching alone caused greater softening when processing at 70C but lead to a firmer product when coupled with calcium chloride addition or vacuum infusion for processing at 70 and 90C.