Obtenção de suco clarificado de açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) com utilização de pectinas e quitosana

Abstract

Açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) for its undeniable potential as natural source of antioxidants and its excellent capacity of industrial exploitation, has attracted a great interest in the industries of tropical fruit juice processing, starting to acquire importance in some regions of Brazil, beyond the Amazon region. The tropical juice acceptance in the international market requires improvement in the processing techniques, such as inclusion of the clarification stage, resulting in a product of high quality for execution of the concentration processes, for manufacture of products as coolers, wines, fresh drinks and others. The technology of clarification of açaí tropical juice through the removal of lipids and insoluble solids is one of the methods for improvement of the sensorial properties and marketing acceptability. For accomplishment this study, type C açaí pulp from the local market of Fortaleza (Ceará-Brazil) was used as raw material. The purpose of this work was to obtain the clarified açaí tropical fruit juice using as clarified aids pectinases and chitosan. The first stage of this research is to achieve the optimum concentration of pectinase for pulp despectinization. Five batches of 100 mL of açaí pulp were treated with 0.01 to 0,2% (v/v) of pectinase, kept to a temperature of 45 + 5°C, keeping the natural pH of the pulp (around 4.0). To each 15min was removed samples of 10 mL of pulp and the enzymatic inativation was performed at 90°C during 10 min and after that made the “Test of the alcohol” for detection of the pectin absence. Once established the parameters of time and enzymatic concentration the clarification process was followed. A juice with 30% of treated pulp (v/v) was made and filtered afterwards. Six batches of 50 mL of treated juice were added of increasing concentrations of 4% chitosan solution raging from 100 to 900 mg. Each 30 min was made a filtration and samples were evaluated concerning to optimum chitosan concentration based on luminosity, turbity and the test of “Excess and insufficience of clarification”. Once choosed the pectin and chitosan concentrations the clarified açaí tropical fruit juice was processed. It was carried out a physico-chemistry and chemical characterization of clarified juice, as well as pulp and the tropical juice for comparative effect. Significant difference at a level of 5% occurred between the different concentrations of chitosan and flocculation time, as well as in the physico-chemistry and chemical characteristics of the pulp, tropical and açaí clarified tropical fruit juice. The use of pectinases as aids in clarification process associated to chitosan for suspensed solids removal in açaí tropical fruit showed satisfactory once occurred a significant reduction of turbidity and increase of luminosity.