Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 13º Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

Purple pitanga (Eugenia uniflora L.) is a fruit that shows different nutritional components with functional properties. With a great potential for industrialization, its usage is possible in products such as jams, paste candies and pulps. Thus, the objective of this work was to characterize and microbiologically evaluate different formulations of jams and paste candies of purple pitanga with reduced sucrose contents. The formulations made for jams were “jam A” with a 100% proportion (150 g of fruit pulp for 150 g of sugar) and “jam B” with a 50% proportion (150 g of fruit pulp for 75 g of sugar), all with the addition of pectin (1.5 g) and citric acid (0.45 g). For the paste candiesthe concentrations were “candy A” with 60% (100 g of fruit pulp for 60 g of sugar) and “candy B” with 40% (100 g of fruit pulp for 40 g of sugar), all added with citric acid (0.6 g) and water (36 mL). The elaboration process followed all the quality control standards and, in sequence, the physicochemical (humidity; ash content; soluble solids; pH; titratable acidity; sugars and color) and microbiological (total and thermotolerant coliforms; mesophilic bacteria; molds and yeast; coagulase positive Staphylococcus and Salmonella sp.) characterizations were performed. The results of the analyses were compared only between formulations of the same type of product. All physicochemical data were within the standard parameters for candies and jams. As for the color aspect, the samples showed a characteristicintense red, differing only in some parameters, as chromaticity and luminosity in candies and jams respectively. For all microbiological aspectsevaluated, the results were in accordance with the established by the legislation. Thus, the possibility of the development of purple pitanga jams and candies is shown, with a reduction in sucrose content, but with interesting nutritional, microbiological and visual characteristics.