Influence of biodegradable packaging on the stability of frozen pre-fried cauliflower

Currently one of the main challenges of food industry is to develop novel products with high quality and safety, in order to respond with efficiency to the habit changes of exigent consumers. In this direction, the “ready to use” frozen products are in continues development, because they offer long-term storage of products which usually have a relatively short shelf- life, such as fish, meat and vegetables. The “ready to use” products could be submitted to some pre-treatments prior freezing (e.g. blanching, pre-frying, cooking) drastically reducing their time of preparation at domestic level. Another main objectives of industries is the reduction of environment pollution due to the plastic packaging materials; therefore many study have been done in order to develop innovative recyclable and/or biodegradable materials suitable for food products. The aim of this work was to study the influence of biodegradable/compostable packaging on the stability of frozen pre-fried cauliflower. For this purpose the samples were stored in three different films: polyethylene monolayer (PE), PE with a specific additive, biodegradable/compostable film, at three different temperature -8, -18, -28 °C for several months. The samples were analysed frozen, thawed and after standardized frying (5 min at 170°C). Beyond the qualitative analyses (colour, texture, water content, freezable water content, peroxides, sensory evaluations), the physico-chemical characterisation of the plastic film has been done.