Processing of the fruit of five prickly pear cultivars grown in South Africa

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: In tests of processing five cultivars of prickly pear fruit, lye‐peeling was not effective as peel was partially removed and flesh erosion occurred. When hand peeled fruit were canned in acidified sucrose syrup (20°B) at 100°C for 15min, differences between cultivar firmness were observed; fruit firmness decreased with increasing processing time, but increased on addition of 0.25% CaCl2 to the syrup. Canned fruit stored for 22 months were still firm and retained their shape, but yellow to orange colour cultivars lost much of their colour by loss of indicaxanthin. the canned fruit developed a gherkin jam‐like uncharacteristic flavour. Fruit yielded between 55% and 68% edible portion which contained 65‐76% turbid juice with a soluble solids content of 10‐14%. the peel contained approximately 10% soluble solids and 4% sugar, mostly fructose and glucose. Pectin methylesterase activity differed slightly between cultivars.