Comparison of osmotic dehydration of Dixiland and Elegant Lady peach slices in glucose and sucrose solutions

Abstract

Peach (Prunus persica) is a stone fruit with a fleshy pulp and a delicate aroma. Peach provides vitamins, fiber and antioxidant compounds, among others. Nevertheless, it is a perishable fruit. Dried fruit (D) is a strategy to maintain the provision of this healthy fruit during the whole year. Osmotic dehydration (OD) previous conventional drying is a pre treatment applied to fresh fruit in order to prevent browning or sugar caramelization during prolonged hot air exposure. Here, the effects of sugar type and cultivar on the nutritional and nutraceutical properties were studied using slices of peach of two commercial cultivars Dixiland (DX) and Elegant Lady (EL) using OD with sucrose or glucose as a pretreatment before conventional drying (D)