TEXTURAL CHANGES IN CARROT DURING COOKING

The aim of the study was to evaluate textural changes in carrots during cooking and to find optimal cooking time of carrots. Using a TA.XT Plus Texture Analyser, texture profile analysis (TPA) of carrot hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness after 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes of cooking was performed. The highest value for hardness was observed in raw carrot (10167.5 g). The lowest value for hardness (1378.92 g) was observed after 20 minutes of thermal processing. Using the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), it was found out how carrot hardness during cooking varies with the other textural parameters from TPA analysis. The coefficient of determination was 0.9955 and it explained 99.55% of total variability for the TPA analysis results. The highest differences in hardness were observed in the first 5 minutes of cooking. The significance of the model was determined by The Fisher´s F test. The probability corresponding to the F value was lower than 0.0001, it would be taking a lower than 0.01% risk in assuming that there was no effect of the explanatory variables. The results implied that the optimal cooking time of carrots lies in range of 10 and 15 minutes