干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Golden Delicious and Red Gold varieties grown at three different agroclimatic locations, with or without pretreatments were evaluated for mass transfer behaviour upto 4.5 h of osmotic dip and the effect of the dip on the quality of osmo-vac dried rings was compared with conventionally dried rings. Data for mass reduction (MR), water loss (WL) and solid gain (SG) during osmotic dip and for chemical constituents and overall acceptability of dried rings were recorded, which differed significantly. Apple rings made out of wet temperate and high hills (L-2) location exhibited higher MR and WL. In general, Golden Delicious variety, irrespective of any location, yielded good quality osmo-vac dried rings. However, the rings from high hills and cold desert (L-3) location were the most acceptable, owing to crunchy texture, good taste/flavour with higher ascorbic acid retention and less browning. Treatment of prepared rings with potassium metabisulphite/ascorbic acid proved essential in checking oxidation during handling and drying, whereas blanching resulted in undesirable penetration of sugars into the rings.