Effect of mechanisation operations on recovery of frozen breaded Gandul pineapple at different processing stages

H.A. Hasimah and M.Y. Rafiah Hasanah

Abstract

Suitable mechanised methods for upscaling the production of frozen breaded pineapple from laboratory scale to commercial scale, in particular the peeling and coring operations, as well as the battering and breading operations were evaluated. The effect of these mechanised methods on the recovery of the product as well as the need to modify the formula were studied. This is with the view of recommending semi-mechanised and fully mechanised operations for upscaling the production of breaded pineapple to commercial scale. Water blanching and steam blanching methods were also evaluated to see the recovery of the product. Mechanisation of the processing stages of (a) deskinning and removal of eyes (b) trimming of core and (c) battering and breading could be accomplished for the processing of frozen breaded pineapple. The mechanised operation of deskinning, and removal of eyes and core was 45 times faster than the manual operation of deskinning and removal of eyes. Mechanised battering and breading was 2.55 times faster than the manual operation. However, the mechanised operations resulted in significantly different (p <0.05) percentage recovery of wedges from fresh fruit, percentage recovery of coated fruit from syruped wedges as well as percentage pick-up of coating from the manual method. Also, modifications had to be done to the batter mixture formulation by diluting the batter.

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