Produção de vinagre de jabuticaba

Abstract

Vinegar is a very popular food used as a condiment and preservative, however, manufacturers have produced vinegar from raw materials of low quality and without economic value, not being given importance to this product. Jabuticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora) is a fruit known in Brazil, but due to their limited shelf life, the marketing of the raw fruit is restricted. As jabuticaba presents considerable amounts of soluble solids, vitamin C and phenolic compounds, it’s use in the production of vinegar would be an alternative, resulting in a product with higher added value. The aim of this study was to produce vinegar from jabuticaba by spontaneous fermentation and controlled fermentation changing evaluating the fermentation conditions: concentration of sugar and ratio water/jabuticaba, their influence on fermented. Product fermentations were monitored by determination of pH, acidity, total soluble solids (TSS) and reducing sugars in glucose. The fermented acetic with more than 4% acidity were physic-chemically, microbiologically and sensory characterized. After stabilization of TSS the ethanol content was determined, in the products obtained by spontaneous fermentation. The ethanol content obtained ranged from 2.1 to 10.7%, and similar results to those found for the controlled fermentation ranging the process from 2.1 to 9.3%, after 72 h of fermentation. The addition of sugar had a positive effect on ethanol production and the increase of ratio water/jabuticaba had negative effect, both significant (p < 0.05), in both types of fermentation studied. In spontaneous fermentation, assays with higher ethanol concentrations (7.8 and 10.7%) resulted in products with lower acidity. Nevertheless, the central points (5.2, 5.7% ethanol) presented higher levels of acidity (~ 3% acetic acid), suggesting a possible inhibition of acetic bacteria naturally present in the must, at concentrations od ethanol above 5%. In controlled fermentation, the formulations with ethanol concentration of 9.3% (F2) and 8.4% reached more than 4% acidity, confirming that alcoholic fermentation with ethanol contents of less than 10% and greater than 7% are suitable for vinegar production. The vinegar samples were according with microbiological and physico-chemical standards, with the exception of F2, which showed final ethanol content and fixed mineral residue higher than values required by the legislation. The hedonic scale test did not present significant difference (p > 0.05) to all the attributes, except the smell that presented a significant difference (p < 0.05),vinegars sensory evaluated F2 and F4 presented acceptance index higher than 70%, indicating that they would be well accepted in the market. The paired comparison test did not present differences to the preference of the evaluated samples.