S14 - Session P4 - The effect of irradiation on Jiotillas (Escontria chiotilla Weber) quality physical, chemical and sensory parameters

Authors: Lourdes Maria Yanez-Lopez *, Miguel Armella, Ivan M Moreno-Chamorro, Karen M De la Sancha-Vázquez

Jiotilla ( Escontria chiotilla Weber) is a fruit endemic to the Mixteca Baja Oaxaqueña semiarid region in Mexico is considered an exotic fruit for most of the people in Mexico and the rest of the world. It is a small, pineapple-like purple cactus with no thorns, a juicy, pleasant sour-sweet flavor, black, soft seeds worth being known by the world. It is wild, monospecific as it lacks established varieties. To reach this goal it is necessary to follow the Mexican regulations to make it innocuous for exportation. Thus, we made a series of irradiation studies within the suggested range which assures the absence of Mexican fruit fly to determine the effect of two Ꝩ-irradiation dosages (150 and 350 grays) on its quality physical, chemical, and sensory parameters finding no differences between the treated and untreated ones in any of them. Therefore, we can proceed to the fulfillment of exportation requirements rules to accomplish our goal, which will be of great economic importance for the producers at La Mixteca Baja Oaxaqueña. There were no differences in chemical parameters (°Brix, pH and titratable acidity) nor sensory parameters. However we detected a slight difference in firmness between control and both irradiation treatments, and It is not clear why this effect.