Dehydration Techniques for Prolonging Mulberry Shelf Life: A Comprehensive Evaluation | InformativeBD

Mary Ann Ysabel Y. Orpilla, from the institute of the Philippines. wrote a Research Article about, Dehydration Techniques for Prolonging Mulberry Shelf Life: A Comprehensive Evaluation. Entitled, “Extending Shelf Life of Mulberry Fruit Through Dehydration: Chemical, Microbial, and Sensory Evaluation”. This research paper published by the International Journal of Biosciences (IJB). an open access scholarly research journal on Biosciences. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences | INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

Dehydrated candied mulberry fruits were developed to process underutilized mulberry fruit with very short shelf life and to specifically investigate the chemical compositions, water activity, microbiological and sensory qualities of mulberry fruits. Dehydration using Multi-Commodity Solar Tunnel Dryer (MCSTD) and sugar preservation methods were used to extend the shelf life of the mulberry fruits. Slightly ripe and fully ripe fruits were processed into dehydrated candy. The chemical compositions, water activity, microbiological, and sensory qualities were studied. The results showed that the dehydrated candied mulberry fruits both fully ripe and slightly ripe were good sources of protein (2.42 and 2.27 g per 100g), ash (0.69 and 1.20 g per 100g), and carbohydrates (81.45 and 91.44g per 100g). Water activity values were 0.47 and 0.62. Results on microbiological analyses particularly on aerobic plate count and yeast and mold count were within safety levels. The degree of ripeness of the fruit showed significant differences in color, taste, hardness, and fracturability. The developed dehydrated candied mulberry can be considered in the human diet with abundant nutrients.

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Introduction

Food waste is produced worldwide on a large scale at different stages of food production, processing, marketing, and consumption. The total food waste produced worldwide is almost 1.3 billion tons per year which explains that 30%–50% of the food produced globally gets discarded. Among the food waste, 50% is produced from fruits, vegetables, and root crops (Bellemare et al., 2017). Fruit wastage is mainly due to its perishable nature and being underutilized. Fruits are available as seasonal surpluses during certain parts of the year in different regions and are wasted in large quantities due to absence of facilities and know-how for proper handling, distribution, marketing, and storage. Furthermore, massive amounts of the perishable fruits produced during a particular season result in oversupply in the market and become scarce during other seasons. Food preservation has an important role in the conservation, better utilization of fruits and utilize the surplus during the off-season. It is necessary to employ methods to extend storage life for better distribution and processing techniques to preserve them for utilization during off-season in both large and small scale. Mulberry (Morus alba) is widely known because of its importance in silk production. The leaves are the sole food of silkworm while its fruits contain high nutrient profile including minerals, amino acids, polyphenols, and polysaccharides (Jiang & Nie, 2015; Sanchez et al., 2015; Wei et al., 2007). Because of these bioactive compounds, antioxidant, antiatherosclerosis, immunomodulative, anticancer, antihyperglycemic, hypolipidemic, and neuroprotective activities, other therapeutic uses of mulberry fruit have been found (Zhang et al., 2018). The fruit can be eaten fresh, dried, and processed products (Yuan & Zhao, 2017). In some other countries like Vietnam, mulberry fruits were processed into syrup (Trung et al., 2018), “pestil” and “köme”, traditional Turkish food prepared from mulberry, honey, walnut, hazelnut, and flour mixture (Yildiz, 2013), jams, marmalades, jellies, juices, liquors, natural dyes, and even cosmetics (Nayab et al., 2020). Mulberry fruit is perishable in nature, softer, more susceptible to mold growth causing their quality to deteriorate and prone to bruising during storage and distribution (Hamid and Thakur, 2018; Park et al., 2013). These are major factors that necessitate developing a cheap and efficient preservation process or value-addition for growers of this fruit and dehydration using MultiCommodity Solar Tunnel Dryer (MCSTD) and sugar preservation were used on this study as methods in extending the shelf life of the mulberry fruit. Dehydration is a valuable food preservation method because it offers several advantages compared to other methods such as freezing or canning. By removing moisture, dehydration inhibits the growth of bacteria, yeasts, and molds that need water to thrive, thus extending shelf life. Dehydrated foods are also lightweight and compact, making them easier to store and transport, unlike frozen foods that require continuous refrigeration or canned goods that are bulky due to liquid content, dehydrated foods can be stored at room temperature in airtight containers, saving on energy costs and storage space. Nutritionally, dehydration preserves many vitamins and minerals, with only minimal loss of heat-sensitive nutrients, making it more advantageous than canning, which often uses high temperatures that can degrade nutritional content. Additionally, dehydration tends to retain flavors. In contrast, freezing can alter texture due to ice crystal formation, and canning can result in softer or altered-tasting foods due to the high heat involved. Furthermore, dehydration is a low-cost, energy-efficient process, making it an accessible and effective method for longterm food preservation.

The main objective of this study is to process mulberry into dehydrated candied mulberry fruit. Furthermore, the chemical compositions, water activity, microbiological, and sensory qualities were investigated.

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