Changes in Proximate Composition, Vitamin C and β-Carotene Contents of Oven Dried Pawpaw (Carica papaya) Fruit as Influenced by Pretreatment Methods

A common way of maintaining essential nutrients in fruits and vegetables is through novel food processing techniques such as pretreatment. This study investigated the influence of pretreatment methods on the proximate composition, vitamin C and β-carotene contents of oven dried pawpaw. Fresh, ripe pawpaw fruit were peeled, sliced and pretreated with three pretreatments – ascorbic acid dip (0.45% w/v), honey dip (0.25% v/v) and steam blanching (100 °C). The fruit slices were soaked in ascorbic acid and honey solutions for 4 min while steam blanching was done for 2 min. Untreated pawpaw sample served as the control. The treated and control samples were dried at an average temperature of 65 °C. Results showed that vitamin C of dried pawpaw samples pretreated with honey dip had the highest retention of vitamin C (116.05 mg/100g) compared to ascorbic acid treated (98.90 mg/100g), steam blanched (109.02 mg/100g), and control samples (77.02 mg/100g). In terms of β-carotene, pawpaw sample treated with ascorbic acid solution had the highest value of 12.68 mg/100g. The use of honey and ascorbic acid solutions as treatments prior to drying can improve the retention of nutrients such as vitamin C and β-carotene in dried fruits. Keywords —Pretreatments, proximate properties, vitamin C, β-carotene