Avaliação físico-química e microbiológica de pinhão cozido e armazenado sob refrigeração

Abstract

The pine nut is the seed of the Araucaria angustifolia, present in the southern states of Brazil. The seed processing, in order to introduce a product ready to offer consumers could contribute to improve marketing of the product, since for its consumption are necessary processes of cooking and peeling, as in the case of a seasonal product. In this work, it was studied the effect of cooking process and stripping the seeds stored at refrigeration temperature for eight days, packed in two types of packages: polystyrene tray (PE) covered with film of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) hinged round. The samples were analyzed as their physical-chemical and microbiological characteristics. Throughout the day there was a decrease in pH alue, both for the PET packaging as to PE-PVC packing. The analysis of total titratable acidity (ATT) showed no significant difference (p < 0.05) on the first and last day storage conainers. The PET packing kept their moisture levels and mass loss without significant difference, while the PE-PVC packing presented significant difference from the second day of storage, as well as on the last day of storage has a loss of 4,6% of total weight. In respect of colouring there was no significant difference (p < 0.05) over the daysof storage for the pine nuts storedin different packaging for the lightness (L*), however, the hue angle (°Hue) showeda tendency to yellow. As the microbiological analysis, it was verified the absence for Salmonella sp. And coliform counts to 45 °C below 1,70 logNMP/g. High counts of mold and yeasts were checked over the eight days of storage of pine nuts in different packaging.