The present work had as objective the evaluation of quality parameters and acceptance of dried peaches submitted to osmotic dehydration. The experiment was divided into three treatments, two of them to be compared, non-coated peaches before osmotic dehydration (Treatment 1) and peaches coated with alginate (Treatment 2) and a third treatment of non-coated peaches with chemical preservatives applied in the osmotic solution to evaluate the conservation of the product at environment temperature. Fruits were blanched, osmotic dehydrated in 60°Brix sucrose solution at 45°C for 5 hours and dried in an upward air-circulated drier at 65°C to 22% moisture by weight control. Results indicated that the coating reduced solid incorporation and increased water loss. The dried peaches obtained under Treatments 1 and 2 were submitted to sensorial evaluation and presented a good general acceptance. Dried fruits stored at room temperature showed microbiological contamination after 40 days irrespective of the package (plastic bag, polyethylene package or cellophane package) while fruits treated with chemical preservative (Treatment 3) did not show visual microbiological contamination at such period of storage.
Prunus persica; alginate; coating; composition; drying
