JUICE EXTRACTION FOR TOTAL SOLUBLE SOLIDS CONTENT DETERMINATION IN MELON

Abstract

The total soluble solids content (TSSC) shows high positive correlation with sugars content, and therefore is generally accepted as an important quality trait of fruits. In melon, this evaluation is usually done by grinding a slice of the fruit's pulp in a household food processor, straining the ground material and then proceeding the TSSC determination in the resulting juice. This evaluation is labor-intensive and takes a long time to complete. An alternative process was delineated for obtaining the juice: the pulp of the fruit slice would be transversally cut one or more times, and longitudinally pressed by hand to obtain the juice. The objective of this work was to compare processes for obtaining juice to evaluate TSSC in melons. Fifty, 15, and 15 fruits of the Galia, Yellow, and Cantaloupe type melons were evaluated, respectively. Each fruit was considered as a block, and was longitudinally split into six fractions with similar sizes, which corresponded to the plots. The following treatments were evaluated: fraction without cuts, fractions with one, three, five, or seven transversal cuts, and the fraction treated by the conventional process. It was concluded that the procedure by which the melon slices of Galia, Yellow and Cantaloupe types are pressed for obtaining the juice to evaluate TSSC can overestimate this content. This would probably be due to the fact that the most internal section of the mesocarp presents greater TSSC than the portions closer to the epicarp.