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• The Relationship Between the Moisture Content of Sweetcorn Raw Material and the Quality of the Deep-Frozen End Product

  135-139

  Éva Kállai

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  One of the remarkable effects of the economical and social development is the changing of the eating habits, first of all increasing consumption of deep-frozen products. The spreading of the sweet corn under these vegetables is characteristic.
  The parameters exerting influence on the quality of the deepfrozen sweetcorn is classed in 3 categories:
  • Physical quality: foreign matter, clumps, blemished corn, broken kernel, miscut, pulled kernel.
  • Organoleptical features: taste, colour, texture, and sweetness.
  • Microbiological features: TVC, mould, yeast.
  The moisture content of the raw material influences the organoleptical features to the highest degree.
  We take continuously samples from the raw material arriving in to the factory to determinate moisture content, and from the product to specify the organoleptical features.
  Based on the data of 2002 we can make the following findings:
  The colour of the deepfrozen sweetcorn is less influenced by the moisture content. The taste is between 69% and 72% the most optimal, but over 72% get worse, more „milky”, water-tasted because of the underdevelopment of sweetcorn. The texture continuously becomes better with the increasing of moisture content. Under 67% of water the class „C” is typical, which means a taste with weak charasteric, a bit scathing or bitter, and texture with rubbery inner part and hard pericarpia. The decadence of taste is caused by converting a great part of sugar into starch.
  The correlation between moisture and quality is varying by varieties; different varieties have their best quality by different moisture content. By our investigations the best harvest time is at the 69-72% moisture content. At this point are the organoleptical features the most optimal, and the grower has not the loss of yield caused by early harvesting.