How does water stress and roasting temperature affect the physicochemical parameters of almonds?

7 páginas.- 2 figuras.- 3 tablas.- 37 referencias

Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) is a useful strategy to reduce the water consumption maintaining the fruit quality. The almonds cultivated under RDI conditions are called hydroSOStainable because are produced under environmentally friendly conditions and present an improved quality. It was demonstrated that almond cultivar and agronomical practices, can affect the kernel chemical composition and consequently the parameters for the roasting process of almonds. The influence of three roasting temperatures (150 °C, 170 °C and 190 °C) on the quality of almonds belonging to 2 irrigation treatments (T1: control and T2: hydroSOStainable almonds) was evaluated. For this, moisture, water activity (aw), organic acids, sugars, antioxidant activity (AA), total phenolic content (TPC) and fatty acids content were measured. Results showed that moisture content, aw, AA (ABTS•+ and DPPH•), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were reduced with the most severe roasting treatment. While citric, isobutyric, maltoheptaose and maltotriose content was increased. HydroSOStainable almonds had significantly higher content of AA, TPC, organic acids, sugars, PUFAs and total fatty acids than control almonds; this tendency was present at 170 °C, but not at 190 °C. Consequently, 170 °C during 10 min was the recommended roasting conditions for the hydroSOStainable almonds.

This research was funded by the Spanish Government [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCI) and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI)], through a coordinated research project (hydroSOS) including the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (AGL 2016-75794-C4-1-R, Productos hidroSOStenibles: identificación de debilidades y fortalezas, optimización del procesado, creación de marca propia, y estudio de su aceptación en el mercado europeo, hydroSOS foods) and the Universidad de Sevilla (AGL 2016-75794-C4-4-R); these projects have been also funded by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) “Una manera de hacer Europa”, (MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE). The author M. Cano-Lamadrid was funded by the Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU) grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU15/02158).

Peer reviewed