4. Conclusions
Fresh-cut pineapple chunks showed a gradual decline in respiration
rate. Immediately after cutting, initial respiration rate was
veryhigh;this decreased and stabilised within24 h. Onaverage, initial
and equilibrium respiration rates were 8.52 and 2.64 ml/kg h,
respectively. The high initial rates, due to a short-lived stress
response, were affected by raw material and processing factors.
A mathematical model based on the exponential decay was developed
to predict respiration rate over time. The model was found
to be useful for predicting the package gas composition and also to
estimate the target OTR and CTR required for packaging of fresh-cut
pineapple chunks.