Influence of different treatments on dehydrated cauliflower quality

Fresh cauliflower was cut into florets, blanched, treated and spread in trays to dry by means of a solar drying process. The influences of packaging materials, blanching time, and potassium metabisulphite (KMS) concentration levels on the quality of solar dehydrated cauliflower up to 6 months of storage were studied. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) present in fresh cauliflower was 74.61 mg (100 g)(-1). Results revealed that ascorbic acid concentration decreased with an increase in blanching time but its retention was high in cauliflower dehydrated by solar drying. Dehydrated cauliflower had 581.37 mg (100 g)(-1) of ascorbic acid in samples treated with 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% of KMS with 3 min blanching at day zero. Washing cauliflower florets in tap water reduced the microbial load as compared with the unwashed sample. Processed and dehydrated cauliflower, packed in three types of packaging materials did not show presence of fungi even after storage for 6 months. In almost all samples, permissible levels of bacterial counts were observed after 6 months of storage. All the samples were also found to be free from Escherichia coli. It was found that blanched samples (blanching done for 7 min) treated with 0.5% KMS, dehydrated and then packed in laminated aluminium foil (LF) were the best in regard with nutritional and microbiological quality of dehydrated cauliflower.