Suitability of Apples Flesh from Different Cultivars for Vacuum Impregnation Process

Abstract

The article evaluated the suitability of 14 apple cultivars for the vacuum impregnation (VI) process based on the comparison of the physicochemical properties of fresh and impregnated tissue. The cube-cut apple was impregnated in a solution close to isotonic composed of 0.5% ascorbic acid, 0.5% citric acid, and 10% sucrose. The VI process was conducted with vacuum time and absolute pressure at 10 min and 15 kPa, restoring atmospheric pressure at 5 min and relaxation time at atmospheric pressure at 10 min. The content of ascorbic acid after VI increased by 3 to 25 times and was in the range of 73.5–130 mg/100 g, while the mass gain for the samples ranged from 15% to 34%. On the basis of the Pearson correlation, it was found that the mass gain was negatively correlated with the firmness of the fresh apple cubes (r = −0.85). The cultivars with favorable features after the VI process in terms of vitamin C content; hardness; and browning index (BI) are Cortland; Shampion; and Ligol.