<b>Physicochemical characteristics of guava “Paluma” submitted to osmotic dehydration

Resumo

The aim of this work was to evaluate the conservation post process osmotic of guava stored temperature at 5^oC. Guava (Psidium guajava L.), red variety “Paluma†minimally processed by mild osmotic dehydration, were packaged in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and stored temperature at 5ºC. Non-treated guava, packed in PET trays, was used as control. The treatment used was osmotic dehydration in sucrose syrup at 60ºBrix and physicochemical determinations were pH, total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity (TTA), reducing sugars (RS), total sugars (TS) and parameters related to colour read (a*), chroma (c*), yellow (b*), luminosity (L*) of the fresh and osmotically dehydrated guava slices. The dehydrated fruits lost about 34.45% of water, concentrating contents of soluble solids, total and reducing sugars, when compared to control samples. The pH value remained around 3.76 for the OD fruits and 3.87 for the fresh fruits. The colour of the dehydrated fruits was more intense than the control samples´. The guava slices osmotic dehydration had 21 days of shelf life, showed physicochemical characteristics significantly superior to the control samples´, having a stable and high quality product as a result.