Quality Control of Tropical Fruit Pulp in Brazil

Abstract

The practicality and increased consumption of healthier products, combined with Brazil's agricultural nature, third largest producer of fruits, caused in the Brazilian fruit pulp production segment a significant increase in the past decade. Food production standards begun to diversify the requirements from the industrial production point of view, as well as safety need to be included in the concept of product quality. At this work there is a discussion of how Brazil assigns legally the concept of tropical fruit pulp’s quality. Brazilian law provides three mandatory aspects to maintain the quality of industrial activity pulps. The first concerns to the production, where industries must have Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s), that consist of checklists and worksheets which regulate industrial routine, such as water used in the process, raw material, packaging, ingredients, quality and hygiene of utensils, equipment and furniture, waste generation and food transportation for the consumer centers. If any non-compliance appears, the corrective action is almost immediate, with an efficient traceability of the problem. The second aspect acts in microbiological point of view, in the sanity of the food for man, providing the limits of quantification of total and fecal coliforms by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply for both total and fecal coliforms as for molds and yeasts, as also indicating the sanitary conditions of handling and processing of the product. Finally, the third aspect directs to the physicochemical characteristics of pulp fruit, Identity and Quality Standards (IQS's) and the parameters such as content of total soluble solids (°Brix), pH, acidity, total solids, total sugars and vitamin C, with specific values for each fruit flavor, that indicates whether during cultivation occurred some negligences on the nutritional aspect of the plant or, in the latter case, adulteration during processing and packaging, as addition of preservatives, acidulants or dilution of the pulp to increase yield. Although the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is not mandatory to processing industries of plant foods, it has the function to check any irregular status during the processing of the product and could improve the standardization of the final product. All these measures are recommended by the Brazilian legislation that achieves an innocuous and nutritional characteristics and organoleptic adequate food.