This study was performed to investigate the effects of pre-treatment and storage temperature and periods on the quality characteristics of ginger paste. The pH of the ginger paste remained constant during room temperature storage but increased with prolonged refrigerated storage periods. During five months of frozen storage, regardless of pre-treatment, the pH of most of the samples decreased slightly and then remained constant. In the color value of ginger paste stored at room temperature, the samples with and without chemical additives changed in color more prominently than fermented or pasteurized samples. Intriguingly, the color value for samples containing chemical additives changed more dramatically when stored under refrigerated conditions. However, the L, a, and b values of samples stored under frozen storage conditions did not change even after ten months. Most of the samples contained glucose and fructose, except for the fermented samples. The free sugar content of samples slowly decreased with increasing storage periods, while the organic acid content generally decreased also, regardless of sample type. Depending on pre-treatment and storage temperature, the gingerol content of the samples was either retained or decreased with prolonged storage time.
Keywords: ginger paste; pre-treatment; quality characteristics; storage condition.