Abstract
•CIRDB can complete the blanching and partial dehydration for garlic.•Fractional conversion model fitted well for POD inactivation during CIRDB.•CIR processing parameters had significant influence on garlic quality.•Optimum CIRDB processing parameters for garlic blanching was obtained.•CIRDB achieved the high-quality garlic products compared with WB.
This study investigates the effects of catalytic infrared (CIR) dry-blanching (CIRDB) on the processing and quality of garlic slices. CIRDB processing parameters of CIR processing temperature, slice thickness and processing time were studied versus the processing characteristics of internal temperature, peroxidase (POD) activity and moisture reduction. Blanched garlic quality characteristics of surface color change (ΔE), allicin retention rate, vitamin C retention rate and microbial content were determined. Hot water blanching (WB) was used as a comparison. The results indicated that increasing CIR processing temperature and/or reducing the slice thickness accelerated internal temperature rise and POD inactivation and moisture reduction. To achieve 90% inactivation of POD, the CIRDB treatment resulted in moisture reductions of 15.87–40.37%, microbial reductions of 1.76–3.91-log, ΔE between 2.03 and 10.01, retention rate of allicin between 10.63 and 33.31%, and retention rate of vitamin C between 55.00 and 81.13%. CIRDB achieved the high-quality garlic products compared with WB.