Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Congress on Innovation Technologies & Engineering , İzmir, Türkiye, 2 - 04 Eylül 2022, ss.176
INDUCTION OF ENZYMATIC BROWNING IN BANANA PEELS BY PULSED ELECTRIC FIELD
ABSTRACT
The induction of enzymatic browning in banana peel tissue by the pulsed electric field (PEF) was studied
using a computer vision system (CVS) and an electrical conductivity-based disintegration index. Banana peel
slices were subjected to the 15µs-pulses at the electric field strength of 3.3 kV/cm by varying pulse numbers
and pulse repetition rates (PRR); a series of RGB images were captured over 180 minutes and converted to
L*a*b* images. The degree of browning was evaluated visually and quantitatively by driving browning
index (BI) from L* images and associated with disintegration index (DI).
PEF induced a rapid brown discoloration, almost completed within 60 min after the treatment. The level and
uniformity of browning across tissue were influenced by the change in PRR and pulse number and showed a
relationship with DI. Among the variables, decrease in PRR produced most notable changes in terms of
browning and energy utilization. The decrease in PRR from 1Hz to 0.1Hz in the 5 trains of pulses provided
the highest increase in BI (from 44.3 ±12.78 to 71.68±5.5) with a small DI increase (from 42.88±0.43 to
46.34±2.29). Moreover, energy consumption required to achieve near-total browning could be achieved by
reducing the frequency from 1 Hz to 0.1 Hz in the 15 trains of pulses. With the decrease in PRR, the tissue
tended to become more uniformly brown suggesting an increase in electrophoretic effect at low PRRs. The
results have further implied that PEF could be utilized as an energy-efficient alternative for inducing
desirable enzymatic browning in various other plant tissue processing, such as in manufacturing black tea,
black olive, and brown sun-dried apricot, locally known as Gün Kurusu.
Keywords: Pulsed electric field, Enzymatic browning, Banana peel, Computer Vision