In this study, juices extracted from three apple cultivars (Golden Delicious, Pinova, and Red Delicious) were stabilized by means of thermal treatment (TT) and high-pressure processing (HPP, 600 MPa 3 min); pH, total titratable acidity, total soluble solids content, color, and viscosity, as well as volatile profile, were investigated. Qualitative characteristics (pH, titratable acidity, colorimetric parameters, viscosity, and volatile profile) results were significantly influenced by both cultivars and treatments; for example, juice viscosity greatly increased after HPP treatment for Golden Delicious, and after both TT and HPP for Pinova, while no influence of stabilization treatment was registered for Red Delicious juices. Regarding the volatile profile, for Golden Delicious cultivar, HPP treatment determined an increase in volatile compounds for most of the classes considered, leading to a supposed quality implementation. For the other two cultivars, the stabilization treatment that better preserved the volatile profile was the HPP one, even if the results were quite similar to the thermal treatment. Further studies are needed to evaluate different time/pressure combinations that could give better results, depending on the specific apple cultivar.
Keywords: apple juices; high-pressure processing; physicochemical characteristics; quality parameters; volatile profile.