TITLE:
Chemical Properties of Pectin from Industry Hot and Cold Break Tomato Products
AUTHORS:
Hui H. Chong, Senay Simsek, Bradley L. Reuhs
KEYWORDS:
Tomato Processing, Pectin Methylesterase, Endopolygalacturonase, Pectin, Hot Break, Cold Break
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.5 No.13,
July
9,
2014
ABSTRACT: Tomato processing includes a break step, which involves rapid heating of
freshly chopped tomatoes to >90°C for hot break, or 60°C to 77°C for cold
break. Pectolytic enzyme deactivation is believed to be the key element in the
hot break step; therefore, pectin content of different products should be
qualitatively distinct. The objective of this study was to investigate the
effect of hot break versus cold break on the cell-wall pectin of tomato.
Cell-wall pectin from hot and cold break tomato products was isolated and
analyzed for carbohydrate composition, degree of polymerization, and degree of esterification.
The results showed no observable differences in the cell-wall pectin isolated
from the two products, indicating that there was no significant pectolytic breakdown
of the tomato in the cold break product, and the pectin might not, by itself,
contribute to the differences in the final product viscosity resulting from the
two processing techniques.