Impact of Ohmic and Microwave Heating Processes in Obtaining Carrot Purees

While carrots are such a popular and cheap raw material, known for its importance in the human diet, as a source of carotenoids, it was chosen to be the object of this study. Since carrot consists of water, protein, cellulosic substances and pectin, the addition of apple pectin as a thickening agent it was a flawless choosing. Elderly people, which represents a growing part of Romanian population, suffer of many illnesses, especially related to the digestive tract, like dysphagia, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which could induce malnutrition. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of steamed coupled with ohmic heating or microwave in obtaining carrot purees. Minimal processing of purees is much more necessary than for other types of products, because of the preliminary processing of the carrots (grading, washing, sorting, peeling, slicing, grinding). The samples with or without pectin were analysed by physico chemical, rheological, textural and laser confocal microcopy point of view. The rheological properties reveal some expected results that the carrot puree is non-Newtonian fluid. The results demonstrated that the antioxidant activity of the carrot purees was not affected by the processing. Textural parameters such as cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness slightly increase with the hydrocolloids addition. So, this study could be a base to develop some new technologies in the field of the carrot puree making.