Aproveitamento industrial do umbu: processamento de geléia e compota

Abstract

The umbu (Spondias tuberosa Arr. Cam.) is a native fruit of the Brazilian Northeast region.. The umbu demands research as it is not adequately characterized, particularly considering its potential for industrialization. Nowadays, these fruits are consumed, at the Northeast region, mainly in natura, prepared as juice, ice cream or "umbuzada" (pulp of the umbu cooked with milk and sugar). The objective of this work was to adapt conventional technology to process umbu jelly and fruit-in-syrup, by evaluating the sensorial acceptance and the physicochemical characteristics of these products. For the jelly processing, it was used two pulp:sugar proportions, 50:50 and 40:60, and three concentrations of insoluble solids of the pulp, 0%, 50% and 100% of the original insoluble solids pulp content. For the umbu-in-syrup, the products were elaborated with different concentration of final soluble solids, 25°Brix, 30°Brix and 35°Brix, added of 1% calcium chloride. The pulps, jellies and fruits-in-syrup of the different treatments were submitted to physical, physicochemical, chemical and sensorial analyses. In the processing of the umbu jelly, the end products presented values of total titratable acidity between 0.60% and 0.90% and soluble solid contents between 66.3°Brix and 68.6°Brix. The treatments with proportion pulp:sugar 50:50 had significantly (p < 0,05) highest sensorial acceptance in relation to the attributes appearance, color and texture. The global acceptance of the umbu fruit-in-syrup was highest for the treatments with 30°Brix and 35°Brix. The use of the umbu fruit as jelly or fruit-in-syrup is possible as these products presented good sensorial acceptance.