Physical-chemical characterization of fruits donated to the Fundación Banco de Alimentos de Córdoba

Abstract

Food Losses and Waste constitute a worldwide problem. The fruit and vegetable (F&V) sector is the most affected; 50% of what it is produced becomes waste, even though it remains fit to be consumed. At the local level, the Abasto Market in Cordoba misspends 1.889,000 kg/month. Donation to the Food Bank Foundation (FBF) is one of the actions the market stalls are carrying out to reduce the wastes. In Cordoba, the program "Recovery of Fruits and Vegetables" works in the FBF. In order to know the quality of these donations, the objective was to physically and chemically characterize the fruits received and establish the waste generated until the conditioning stage, to be incorporated into a food processing process.

The selected fruits were pear, apple and orange. Six samples of pear and five of the other two, from different batches, were analyzed. Statistical analysis: it was carried out with Microsoft Excel and Infostat programs. The variance analysis (ANOVA) and the multiple comparisons test, DGC (α 0,05) were applied to establish differences between fruits. Soluble solids content (SS), pH, total titratable acidity (%TTA) and proximal composition (AOAC, 1999) were determined. Firmness was measured with a penetrometer.

The firmness of pears was 0 kg/cm2, lower than desirable for consumption, while in apples were 5.2-6.9 kg/cm2 (95% CI), in agreement with expected values. The firmness values are congruent with those observed during visual inspection. The pH of fruits was similar (≈ 4) and the %TTA was higher in orange (0.59 ±0.12) than in apple (0.26±0.05) and pear (0.33±0.09), the opposite happened with SS. The proximal composition is according to the bibliography.

The pears received, despite not meeting the quality standards regarding appearance and texture, are useful for the production of by-products. The oranges met the required quality parameters in terms of Juice% and °Brix. Apples and oranges showed a lower degree of deterioration than pears, and can be consumed fresh or used in the processing of other foods