High pressure processing of garlic paste: effect on the quality attributes

The effect of high pressure treatment and conventional thermal processing on the various quality attributes of garlic paste was evaluated in terms of physicochemical, enzymatic, sensory and microbiological parameters. Thermal treatment inactivated the polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase enzymes, whereas an enhanced activity was noted at 200MPa which reduced significantly (P<0.05) when treated with 400 and 600MPa. Total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activities showed an increasing trend with increase in pressure, whereas thermal processing was found to significantly (P<0.05) decrease these phytocompounds. The CIE (L*, a*, b*) values were found to be better retained in high pressure-processed pastes compared with thermally treated one. The microbial counts in terms of total plate count, yeast and mould count as well as total coliform counts were reduced significantly (P<0.05) in both the treatments. Sensory attributes were found to be better in the case of high pressure-processed samples as compared to the thermally treated one.