(177h) Study of Specific Refrigerated Storage Conditions for Minimally Processed Foods: A Review

The increasing demand for food products that have concepts such as naturalness is a trend that demonstrates the new consumption behavior of the population. Minimally processed products are easily accessible sources for obtaining nutrients of vegetable origin. While these products are attractive because of the appeal organic, natural and healthiest, the mini processing of a vegetable reduces its shelf life and can generate food waste. Moreover, all energy and water used into producing the food are also wasted. In this way, all wasted food also causes environmental impact. To avoid this unfriendly-environmental situation, improving storage conditions in household refrigeration appliances can extend the shelf-life of fresh food products. The definition of specific refrigeration parameters, adequate and effective for each fresh food, contributes to the maintenance of nutritional, sensorial and microbiological qualities of food, offering longer shelf life. Thus, this work aims to review the literature to identify optimal conditions of refrigerated storage for fresh minimally processed food products. For this purpose, a bibliographic survey of the last 5 years was carried out in the databases of Scielo, Science direct, Google academic and Periodicals CAPES, with the following indexers: fresh-cut food, refrigeration systems, food refrigeration. Studies have shown that reducing the storage temperature from 10 to 2 ° C decreases the respiration rate by half of most vegetables, minimizing biochemical reactions and microbial proliferation. However, there is a considerable variation between the recommendable storage conditions of different fresh foods. According to the literature, storage at 0 °C allows fresh-cut onion preservation up to 15 days, preserves vitamin in melons and reduces the browning in fresh-cut Lotus root. The acceptance of fresh-cut iceberg salad is also affected by storage temperatures, and salads stored at 4 °C and 8 °C have a higher acceptance score than salads stored at 12 °C. The relative humidity plays an important role on food conservation too and can to influence significantly, changing the optimal storage conditions. Moreover, it is noted that other technologies as modified atmosphere packaging has been studied and their applications, together with refrigeration systems, can extend the products shelf-life even more. The consumer's preference for fresh minimally processed foods has been increasing considerably, and studies about storage in specific refrigeration systems, are important to improve the qualities and shelf-life of these kind of foods. Knowing the best storage conditions for each fruit and vegetable is the first step to refrigeration appliances optimization and new appliances design. This knowledge reveals opportunities to innovative technologies development, what can potentially reduce food, water and energy problems wasted.