Abstract:Fresh-cut cabbage is susceptible to mechanical damage, leading to quality deterioration; therefore, it is particularly important to select an appropriate anti-staling agent formula. By studying the effects of different concentrations of papain, bromelain, and ε-polylysine anti-staling agents on the quality of fresh-cut cabbage, the sensory quality of vacuum-packaged fresh-cut cabbage was evaluated using color, texture, appearance, and smell as the screening indicators. Single factor and response surface optimization experiments revealed that the optimal formula of biological anti-staling agents for fresh-cut cabbage was 0.3% papain, 0.3% bromelain, and 0.1% ε-polylysine. The order of effect on the sensory quality of fresh-cut cabbage according to response surface analysis of variance was: ε-polylysine > bromelain > papain. Storage experiments proved that the optimized formula of the biological anti-staling agent could effectively delay the decline of vitamin C, reducing sugar, and chlorophyll contents of fresh-cut cabbage. After 12 days of storage, the contents of vitamin C, reducing sugars, and chlorophyll a and b in fresh-cut cabbage treated with the biological anti-staling agent were 26.23 mg/100 g, 18.92 mg/g, 6.08 mg/kg, and 12.25 mg/kg, respectively. These results indicate that the optimized combination of biological anti-staling agents could effectively maintain the sensory and nutritional quality of fresh-cut cabbage, offering obvious advantages over a single anti-staling agent, and the proposed formula can be used for the commercial preservation of fresh-cut cabbage.
