Studies on Physico-Chemical Properties of Pineapple Fruit and Development of Pineapple Peeler

The important physico-chemical properties, viz., moisture content, length, breadth, thickness, bulk density, true density, porosity, total soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, reducing sugar, and non-reducing sugar were determined for pine apple of Giant Kew variety. The average dimensions of pineapple at three principal axis and unit mass were 130 mm, 95.6 mm, 86.56 mm and 1375.46 g, respectively at moisture content of 75.8% (wb). The geometric mean diameter (GMD) and sphericity were 102.61 mm and 0.77, respectively. The moisture content of pineapple peel and pulp were 84.99% (wb) and 78.55% (wb), respectively. The whole pineapple consisted of 19.99–20.23% (±0.12%) of the peel 59.74–60.04% (±0.15%) 59.89±15% edible portion and 20.01–20.23% (±0.11%) crown, respectively. The average value of bulk density with crown and without crown was 152 kg/m³ ± 8.00 and 122 kg/m³ ± 4.00, respectively at 78.5% (wb) moisture content of pineapple. The mean value of true density of pineapple with crown and without crown was 930 kg/m³ ± 19.23 and 880 kg/m³ ± 11.30, respectively. The average value of porosity with crown and without crown was found to be 86.33% ± 1.59 and 81.33% ± 2.50. The value of soluble solids for pineapple pulp was more than the pineapple peel i.e., 8.65°B and 3.47°B at a standard temperature of 27.68°C. The value of pH of pineapple pulp was more than the pineapple peel i.e., 4.37 and 2.75. The titrable acidity was found to be 2.03%. The average value of reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar was 7.15% and 6.08%. The value of ascorbic acid was found to be 19.81 mg per 100 g. The pineapple were graded into three different grades on the basis of diameter of the fruit viz 7.5 to 8.5 cm, 8.5 to 9.5 cm and 9.5 to 10.5 cm. Accordingly, the pineapple peelers have been developed for these three diameters The performance evaluation of the pineapple peeler indicated that the pulp extracted for pineapple peeler was 56.13% (time 84.4 sec); 56.45 (time 86.13 sec) and 56.8% (time 88.5 sec) respectively for Grade A, Grade B and Grade C pineapples.