Cherry chemical composition and antioxidant activity under freezing comprehensive relations assessment

Cherry is a successful combination of sugars, acids, attractive color and taste. However, its shelf life is limited and can be prolonged only with the help of new freezing technologies. Therefore, the gool of this work was to investigate changes in component composition of fresh and frozen cherry. The objects of the research were cherries of the varieties of Shpanka and Lotovka. The studies were carried out with cherries grown in the Central region of Ukraine at the Department of Technology of storage and processing of fruits and vegetables at Uman National Horticulture University. For cherries of both varieties were kept in 20% sugar solution with the addition of 4% ascorutin 1% chitosan for 30 minutes, dried with air flow, frozen at –25°C, packed in 0.5 kg plastic bags, and stored at ‒18°C. For control purposes, nontreated cherries were packed in plastic bags of respective volume. According to the research, preprocessing with 20% sugar solution with the addition of 1% chitosan contributes to preservation of quality and biological value of frozen cherries. Thus antioxidant activity in frozen cherries of Shpanka and Lotovka varieties is 27 and 18 mmol/dm3, ascorbic acid content – 17.6 and 20 mg/100g. So the indexes of quality of cherries for freezing are interrelated and constitute one correlation pattern in which the major index indicator is the content of dry soluble substance and antioxidant activity.