Improvement of Processing Quality of Cranberries by Storage in Nitrogen

Abstract

Comparison of the color and processing qualities of berries stored in nitrogen with those of berries stored in air (both at 3.3°C for up to 12 weeks) showed that in a nitrogen atmosphere berries could be stored longer with less decay yielded a better sauce and juice than when stored in air.

Sauce from cranberries stored for six weeks in nitrogen atmospheres was superior in flavor to sauce from berries stored in air and equivalent in flavor to sauce from freshly harvested berries. Color measurements indicated significant enhancement of the color of whole nitrogen stored berries. With nonenzymic juice extraction, nitrogen stored berries yielded darker juice than air stored berries but with enzymic extraction the differences were not apparent. Storage in nitrogen significantly increased the titratable acidity of the juice.