AVALIAÇÃO FÍSICO-QUÍMICA DE POLPAS INDUSTRIALIZADAS DE MURUCI (BYRSONIMA CRASSIFÓLIA)

The fruit industry has grown significantly, driven mainly by the production of frozen fruit pulps, an affordable alternative that allows the availability of fruits both in season and off-season. To meet consumer demands and Brazilian legislation, commercialized fruit pulps must present physical, chemical and sensory characteristics similar to those of fresh fruit, in addition to ensuring microbiological safety. In this context, the present study aimed to evaluate the physicochemical quality of frozen muruci pulps commercialized in Pará, in addition to applying statistical techniques to discriminate the pulps. The results obtained in this research demonstrated that the muruci pulps commercialized by the three factories in Pará have good physicochemical quality, standing out for their acidic pH, which hinders microbial proliferation and contributes to greater product stability. The multivariate techniques applied to the physicochemical variables showed high efficiency in discriminating the samples according to the producing factory, reaching 100% accuracy with PCA and 93.33% with AHA. Thus, these techniques, especially PCA, can be used to predict the origin of the pulps analyzed.