Fortified and freeze-dried kiwi fruit (Actinidia deliciosa): quality and sensory assessment

Abstract Kiwi fruit (Actinidia deliciosa) (KF) is one of the best fruits available due to its large amount of nutrients. Despite its many health benefits, there are no previous reports on its preparation in other readily ingestible forms. The objective of the present study was to make a new food product from KF. The KF pulp was fortified and blended with several raw materials (such as rice flour and oat flour) using a stepwise short time addition and mixing methodology since this avoids unwanted biochemical and chemical reactions. The blended and reduced moisture KF paste was freeze-dried on a round silver coated steel plate (RSCSP), supplying the heat of sublimation using a newly designed cubic heater. The freeze-drying (FD) time was 4.5 h and the drying kinetics were studied using four established models. The effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) during FD (at 50 °C) was 1.532 x 10-6 m2/s and the activation energy (E) estimated for the FD was 28.35 kJ/mol. The freeze-dried sample was ground and placed under vacuum to reduce the weathering effects. The quality of the stored product was evaluated using the proximate analysis, physicochemical analysis and a sensory evaluation using a hedonic scale. The raw, fresh KF had a moisture content of 85.07% and the final freeze-dried product one of 3%. The carbohydrate, total sugar, protein, fat, total ash, crude fibre and vitamin C contents of the final product increased by 563%, 400%, 355%, 386%, 672%, 106%, and 117% respectively. Of the 66 panelists, the % consumer acceptances for the different attributes were: sweetness (68.18%), sourness (90.91%), saltiness (100%), bitterness (100%), flavour (95.45%), texture (77.27%) and overall acceptability (81.82%). Using conventional freeze-drying (CFD) for blended KF pulp without fortification, with the same RSCSP and the same cubic heater for sublimation, the drying time was found to be 7 h to reach the same final moisture content of 3%.