Study On The Browning Mechanism And Control In Pickled Garlic

Pickled garlic was considered that fresh garlic submerged in brine including more than 20% NaCl, and lactic acid fermentation occurred during this process. The picked garlic was suitable for everyone with low pungent flavor. But unfavourable browning color was easily occurred in the process of pickling, which reduced the commercial value of pickled garlic. So it was important to study the browning mechanism of pickled garlic. The intrinsic and external factors associating with enzymatic and no-enzymatic browning reactions were studied in this paper. The main study results were as follows:1. Effect of main factors on the browning of pickled garlicThe results showed that different kinds of factors had different effects on pickled garlic browning. The browning of garlic was affected by temperature significantly, low temperature could restrain the browning but high temperature accelerated it. Salt concentration and pH value had the same patterns on garlic browning as temperature. Vitamin C could accelerate garlic browning in low concentration, but restrain it in high concentration. Low concentration of Fe3+and Cu2+could accelerate the browning. Addition of NaHSO3, H2O2, ClO2, blanching with hot water and batch adding of salt could restrain garlic browning. Pickled brine, placed modes, Ca2+ and Mg2+ had little effect on browning with no significant difference compared with controls.2. Browning control of the pickled garlicBased on the assessment of single factor test and considering the practical producing application, the optimum browning restraining conditions were: blanching with hot water at 100℃for 2min and batch adding of salt (first brine concentration 8%, with 13d intervals, adding salt twice). The tap water and pickle salt were also used as pickle stuff. The results indicated that the newly improved techniques could effectively restrain browning, preserve its pickled flavor, and meet the commodity requirements.3. Browning mechanism of pickled garlicThe results showed that the browning of pickled garlic has close relation to enzymatic browning and non-enzymatic browning, especialy the Maillard reaction. Enzymatic browning happened mainly in the prophase due to the inhibition of high concentration of salt in the anaphase of pickling, but Maillard reaction was the main factors which occurred in the whole process.