High‐pressure processing of freshly cut vegetables: influence on organoleptic properties, microbial load and trace element bioaccessibility

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The demand for minimally processed foods has increased markedly over the past two decades. Two varieties of freshly cut vegetables (rocket and spinach), as fresh and freeze-dried vegetables, were treated by high-pressure (HP) processing. The time and pressure values tested were 2 min for 200, 400 and 600 MPa; and additionally 4 and 5 min for 200 MPa. RESULTS: The scores from sensory analysis of fresh rocket and spinach were uniformly low across all evaluated attributes, resulting in the sensory data being inappropriate to find a positive effect of the HP treatment on the fresh vegetables. Nevertheless, freeze-dried rocket and spinach exhibited a significantly greater resilience to HP treatments, maintaining acceptable sensory attributes. HP treatments demonstrated a clear impac