Changes in liquid phase and mechanical properties during osmodehydrofreezing of papaya (carica papaya L.)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of osmotic treatments on the freezing rate, drip loss (DL), elastic modulus (EM) and stress of yield limit (σL) of papaya (Carica papaya L.) samples stored under freezing conditions. Dehydration was performed using an osmotic sucrose solution with 55 and 45 ºBrix for 30 and 90 min. Osmotically dehydrated papaya samples were frozen at -40°C and stored for 10, 20, 30 and 60 days. Fresh fruit was used as a control sample during freezing storage. The results showed the treated samples exhibited lower drip loss with respect to control samples. It was observed that elastic modulus in treated samples showed higher values compared to control samples. Conversely, σL had achieved a decreasing for all treatments during freezing storage and treated samples exhibited higher σL values with respect to control samples