Note. Vacuum impregnation of banana (Musa acuminata cv. giant cavendish) / Nota. Impregnación a vacío de banana (Musa acuminata cv. giant cavendish

Abstract

Vacuum impregnation of banana was analysed by a hydrodynamic mechanism to determine effec tive porosity (∈_e ). In the initial experiments, the influence of the ripening degree and cut was deter mined without taking into account sample deformations caused by the pressure gradients; in these cases ∈ _e decreased as maturity progressed. Important structural changes were observed 2-4 days after the bananas were purchased from the local market, probably due to the climacteric charac teristic of the product. Other experiments were carried out to analyse the coupling of the hydro dynamic mechanism (HDM) with deformation-relaxation phenomena (DRP) by varying the time of treatment; ε _e values determined by this procedure were approximately 10.1% and significant deformation values in the vacuum step (γ _e = 3.6%) were observed. The height/diameter ratio also seemed to influence the behaviour of the product to the HDM-DRP action. The most impregnated samples were the ones with a height half that of the banana diameter.

Keywords

banana Musa acuminata cv. giant cavendish impregnation vacuum porosity

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