Softening of Canned Apricots: A Chelation Hypothesis |
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| Authors: | DAVID A. FRENCH ADEL A. KADER JOHN M. LABAVITCH |
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| Affiliation: | Authors Kader and Labavitch are with the Dept. of Pomology, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95616.;Author French is with Del Monte Corporation Research Center, 205 North Wiget Lane, Walnut Creek, CA 94598. |
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| Abstract: | Infiltration of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.), Patterson cultivar fruits, which are susceptible to rapid softening, with calcium chloride before processing resulted in definite firming of the canned apricots. Non-susceptible fruits treated with citrate buffers (pH 3.7) showed dramatic post-process softening. In individual, untreated, early, green fruit, firmness after processing was directly correlated with the bound calcium:citrate ratio. Based on a chelation hypothesis, it was proposed that softening was accelerated when chelators such as organic acid anions removed structural calcium from the cell wall once cell membranes were lysed by heating. |
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