Pasteurization of canned asparagus using microwaves

Abstract

Asparagus is a kind of vegetable with high antioxidant activity. In this study, canned asparagus was pasteurized using microwaves. The effects of microwave power and time toward microbiological criteria of the product were investigated. At the microwave power of 2.67W/g and the time of 4 minutes, the product was safe from microbiological criteria. Moreover, the reduction of vitamin C, phenolic contents and antioxidant activity of the sterilized products by microwave method was less than 19.2%, 26.4%, and 22.9% respectively as compared with that of the conventional pasteurization. After 8 days of storage using Q₁₀ method, the vitamin C concentration, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity were decreased up to by 78.0%, 36.3%, and 37.4%, respectively. Canned asparagus product had a score of overall preference score of 7.50. This result suggested that the pasteurization of canned asparagus using microwaves was is more effective than the traditional pasteurization method and is suggested as a useful method for canned vegetable processing technology.