Textural Characteristics and Spatial Sugar Profile of a Super Sweetcorn Stored with or without Husks

The increase in sweetcorn cob consumption has led to more research into several quality parameters during storage. Sweetness and firmness are the major quality attributes in sweetcorn cobs such that maintaining these is critical. In the fresh sweetcorn market, there is an ongoing dispute over whether sweetcorn cobs sold asnaked (husks having been fully removed) are closer to consumer requirements as compared to window stripped (cobs with a narrow area free of leaves) retail formats.The relationship between sugar content of edible parts (kernels) and non-edible tissues (shank and core) of cobs has also not been investigated and may help explain the biochemical changes and possible relationship between format and handling conditions. Accordingly, the effect of cob format on postharvest temporal changes in texture and sugars content of edible and non-edible tissues of twin-packed UKgrown super sweetcorn (sh2) cobs of cv. 6800 were evaluated. Results suggest that naked cobs maintained significantly higher mean values of maximum compressiveload than window strip cobs when stored at 5 ?C for 10 days. The total sugar content (glucose + fructose + sucrose) of kernels was ca. 1.21-fold lower than in the core and 1.16-fold lower than of shank. However and importantly, sucrose content in kernels was ca. 1.4-fold greater than in the core and ca. 2.2-fold greater than inthe shank. Furthermore, glucose and fructose content in shanks was significantly higher than in core and kernels. In summary, temporal changes in textural profile were strongly dependent on retail format of the cobs, and sugar profile on the spatial distribution in kernels, core or shank tissue during storage. The picture belongs to photaki.es The authors work for:Plant Science Laboratory, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, MK43 OAL, United Kingdom