32) Deteriorative Reactions in Dried Fruits & Vegetables

Browning reactions in foods are of widespread occurrence, and become evident when food materials subjected to processing or to mechanical injury. They are important in terms of the alteration of appearance, flavour, and nutritive value. Browning is considered to be desirable if it enhances the appearance and flavour of a food product in terms of tradition and consumer acceptance like in the cases of coffee, maple syrup, beer, and in toasting of bread. However, in many other instances, such as fruits, vegetables, frozen and dehydrated foods, browning is undesirable as it results in off-flavours and colours. Therefore it is important to know the mechanisms and inhibition methods of browning reactions. Another significant adverse effect of browning is the lowering of the nutritive value of the food article (1).