shows the characterisation of fresh persimmon and
spreadable products in terms of moisture content, Brix, pH and
water activity. In general, samples submitted to osmotic dehydration suffered an increase in soluble solids content from 15 Brix to
38–44 Brix, coupled with a reduction in water from 85% to 57%.
Analysed Brix presented a high variability that could be related
to the staggered ripening of raw material. Regarding pH, this
parameter changed from 5.89, pH of fresh persimmon, to values
close to 3.68 in the spreadable products, as a result of the use of citric acid as an acidulant. It is important to point out the stability of
the spreadable product during storage, since spreadable products
achieved a pH close to 3.5. Finally, all processed samples presented
a water activity value of about 0.925 ± 0.006; and therefore they
could be classified as high water activity products (Fito et al.,
1995).