Nutritional, Technological and Functional Characterization of freeze dried tropical fruit pomaces.
Agroindustrial resiudes, tropical fruits, freeze drying, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, thermal treatment.
Studies have shown the health benefits of the consumption of fruits, which is justified by the presence of bioactive compounds, like polyphenols and carotenoids with antioxidant activity. In this context, Brazil stands out by the production of several tropical fruits, like acerola, guava and cashew apple, which are processed in big quantities and produces lots of agroindustrial pomaces. The objective of this work was characterize the acerola, guava and cashew apple freeze dried pomaces (respectively, AFP, GFP and CFP) as for its nutritional, technological and functional aspects. The freeze dried pomaces showed high content of dietary fiber, especially to insoluble fibers in GFP (40,6%) and soluble to AFP (14,2%). The lipidic and proteic values were bigger to GFP (13,8% e 9,2%) and CFP showed bigger content of available carbohydrates (44,5%). In a general manner, all pomaces showed low caloric value, and mineral profile especially rich in potassium, calcium, iron and zinc. AFP showed bigger content of phenolic compounds (5331,7 mg eqAG/100g), total flavonoids (651,7mg eqC/100g) and antioxidant activity (63,3 μmol eqTrolox/g). The GFP had the better content of total proanthocyanidins (217,8 mgEqPAC2/100g). As for its technological aspects, all pomaces showed low hygroscopicity. The CFP showed the bigger solubility (45,1 %) and AFP the better water and oil holding capacity (7,4 g/g and 4,8 g/g recpectively). The CFP had the lower antioxidant activity, but showed increment of the same during the of thermal impact study, reaching values of 26,6 μmol eqTrolox/g (32% of increment) that differ to the AFP, which was more sensible to the heating, reaching values of 45,7 μmol eqTrolox/g (29,6% of reduction).