Establishment of the textural detecting methods on the fruit of Chinese jujube by texture analyzer

• Published in: Acta horticulturae no. 993; pp. 231 - 238
• Main Authors: Ma, Q.H, Wang, G.X, Liang, L.S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Society for Horticultural Science 01.01.2013
• Subjects: chewiness; cohesion; dried fruit; firmness; fruits; hardness; ingestion; raw fruit; small fruits; texture; Ziziphus jujuba
• ISSN: 0567-7572
• DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.993.35

The objective of this study is to establish identically standardized evaluating methods for the fresh and dried eating Chinese jujube (Mill.). TA.XT plus texture analyzer was used to perform the puncture test (PT) and the texture profile analysis (TPA) with the whole fruit of the fresh and dried jujube, respectively. Two suitable detecting methods for Chinese jujube were established. The main method of PT was: two points at the equatorial face of a whole fresh fruit were selected to perform the experiment and more than 20 randomly selected fruits were required to fulfill a test. A needle like probe was used to perform PT with given settings. After the enactment of the Macro program, the parameters could be received in the illustration curve as follows: skin break force, skin break distance, skin brittleness, skin toughness, maximal/average flesh firmness and the number of peaks. The main method of TPA was: a whole dried fruit was selected to perform the experiment and more than 40 randomly selected fruits were required to fulfill a test. A cylinder plunger was used to perform TPA with given settings. After the enactment of the Macro program, six parameters such as hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness and resilience could be received in the illustration curve. The detecting method could detect the distinct texture of the fresh and dried eating Chinese jujube from different sources accurately and expediently. At the same time, the two methods could also be applied in the textural detecting of other small fruits.