Impact of conventional and innovative processing conditions on organoleptic and nutritional properties of applesauce from organic and conventional production systems

The impact of cultivar and production system was studied over two years on organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of apple fruits and then, on purees processed with both conventional convection cooking under vacuum and fast innovative microwave cooking. The main factors affecting the content and composition of sugars, organic acids, volatiles, polyphenols, and fibre were in the decreasing order, cultivar, year, and production system. Regarding processing, the fast innovative microwave cooking led to puree with a higher viscosity but with a lower polyphenol content compared to the convection cooking. Microwave cooking seemed to better preserve fibre but limit the diffusion of minor phenolic components, coming from skin and pips to puree and increase polyphenols degradation due to excessively high temperature spot. These results indicate that apple puree processed under vacuum did not present lower organoleptic and nutritional quality compared with fresh apple, as far as sugars, acids, volatiles, polyphenols and fibres were concerned.