Biochemical Changes and Sensory Quality of Shredded and MA-Packaged Iceberg Lettuce

Cultivars of shredded iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativu L.) ‘Saladin’, ‘Santis’, ‘Telda’ and ‘Roxette’ responded in a parallel way to four modified atmosphere (MA) packaging treatments. Moderate vacuum packaging (mvp) in 80 μm polyethylene (PE) inhibited enzymatic browning over 10-day storage at 5°C. When lettuce was packaged in 80% O₂, 20% CO₂ (80/20), more browning occured in SL3-bags (59 μm multilayer coextruded film) than in PE-bags. Polyphenol oxidase activity declined during storage in all 4 atmospheres, with lowest activity in PE-80/20. Endogenous ascorbic acid (AA) did not act as an efficient antioxidant in delaying browning. Total carbohydrate content (TC) declined slightly during storage. Tristimulus color measurements correlated highly with visual ratings.     

Heat Inactivation Kinetics of Trypsin Inhibitors During High Temperature-Short Time Processing of Soymilk

Heat treatment of soymilk was studied in the conventional batch boiling process and under High Temperature-Short Time (HTST) conditions. Reduction in total trypsin inhibitor was assayed enzymatically, and individual inhibitors, the Kunitz and the Bowman-Birk inhibitor, were assayed by ELISA technique. Standard first-order reaction kinetics and thermodynamics were applicable for inactivation, and results indicated that the mechanism was not protein unfolding, because entropy changes were zero or negative. The two inhibitors were inactivated at the same rate around 137°C. Therefore, a simple first-order kinetic model which gave a good, slightly conservative estimate of residual anti-trypsin activity under HTST conditions could be established.