Abstract:
Blueberry pulp can be prone to phase separation, flocculation, and stability deterioration during processing and storage, thus constraining its large-scale industry. It is an urgent need to develop naturally stabilized composites. Preliminary studies have revealed that the introduction of kiwifruit pulp can be expected to significantly modify the rheological properties of blueberry pulp, in order to improve the stability. In this study, a systematic investigation was made of the dynamic evolution patterns of the key quality attributes in kiwifruit during storage. The underlying mechanisms were determined to govern their impact on the quality of blueberry-kiwifruit pulp composites. The quality features of kiwifruit were first explored (including soluble solids, texture, electrical properties, microstructure, and flavor) during storage. And then, an analysis was implemented on the effects of kiwifruit under different storage conditions on the quality of blueberry-kiwifruit composite fruit (including pH, conductivity, rheological properties, particle size distribution, and PME activity). Results showed that the total soluble solids (TSS) of kiwifruit firstly increased and then decreased with the prolongation of the storage, due to the degradation of starch particles. And the highest TSS (14.7 %) was observed in the kiwifruit storage for 7 days. Additionally, the starch granules in kiwifruit pulp were first degraded, followed by the hydrolysis of cell wall polysaccharides (such as pectin), which were accompanied by the disruption of the pectin network structure during storage. Therefore, the two key quality indicators of kiwifruit gradually decreased, namely, hardness and cohesiveness, indicating the gradual softening in the macro-texture of kiwifruit. Specifically, both the W1W and W5S response values significantly increased as the storage of kiwifruit was prolonged. In detail, the highest W1W response value (18.255) and W5S response values (4.234) were observed in kiwifruit after 10-day storage. Furthermore, the W1W and W5S response values decreased by 80.89% and 41.99%, respectively, thus subjecting to mingling blueberry pulp with kiwifruit pulp. The reason was that the dilution of the kiwifruit pulp was used to inhibit the concentration of volatile flavor compounds in blueberry pulp. The integrity of the cell wall decreased gradually, while the impedance and reactance shared the downward trend, indicating the decreased hardness and viscoelasticity of kiwifruit. In the blueberry-kiwifruit compound pulp, the pH increased with the increase in storage time, while the conductivity firstly decreased and then increased. The layering and condensation in the compound pulp were significantly improved after the addition of the kiwifruit pulp. The lowest apparent viscosity (4 404.3 Pa·s) was obtained in the compound pulp with kiwifruit that had been kept in storage for 7 days. Particle distribution illustrated that there was a decrease in the Volume-average particle size(D 4,3) and the Area-weighted average particle size (D 3,2) of the compound pulp, compared with the single blueberry pulp. It implies that the pulp particles were intensely coated with each other and then formed smaller complexes. Additionally, due to the PME inhibitor (PMEI) from kiwifruit, the PME activity of compound pulp decreased by 38.14%, compared with blueberry pulp after thermal sterilization. This process contributed to the better rheological properties of the compound pulp. Taken together, the kiwifruit stored during the mid-storage period should be considered as the optimal material to improve the rheological quality of the compound pulp.