Background: Melons (Cucumis melo L.) are widely cultivated in Mediterranean countries. For fresh-cut melon elaboration, factors such as type of cultivar and cut have a significant impact on final product quality. The quality parameters from long, medium and short shelf-life Galia melon cultivars, cut into different shapes such as slices, trapezoids and cylinders and stored up to 10 days at 5 °C, were evaluated in order to learn the suitability of these cultivars and type of cut for minimal processing.
Results: In general, long-life melon cultivar had a low respiration rate and ethylene emissions, and high tissue firmness, but low levels of glucose, fructose, vitamin C and flavor rating by consumers. However, despite having higher metabolic activity and susceptibility to microbial spoilage, the short shelf-life cultivar melon had higher firmness retention. This cultivar was characterized by its richness in glucose, fructose and vitamin C, and its sensory quality (flavor) was highly valued. In general, the medium cultivar had an intermediate behavior between long and short cultivars but without their positive attributes. As a consequence of the most intense damage, the cylindrical shape had higher metabolic activity, susceptibility to microbial spoilage and reduced appearance.
Conclusions: In the long and medium-life cultivars studied, low flavor was the limiting factor to extend the shelf-life of fresh-cut melon while for the short-life cultivar the limiting factor was its susceptibility to bacterial growth. Cut types such as cylinders should be avoided.
Keywords: Cucumis melo L. var. cantalupensis; fresh-cut; microbial quality; sensory quality; vitamin C content.
© 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.