Calcium did not have a significant effect on the moisture content nor on the
level of solutes reached in the samples and, subsequently, it did not affect the water and solute mass variation. The effect of the vacuum pulse was not very marked, although there was an observed tendency towards a reduction in the loss of water and total mass
in the treatments carried out with vacuum pulse when compared with treatments performed at atmospheric pressure.This demonstrates that calcium contributes
to the reinforcement of the cellular structure by increasing
its capability to retain liquid during storage (Lee et al., 2003; Quiles
et al., 2004; Saftner et al., 2003). The fact that samples with calcium
lose less liquid supports the theory that liquid loss is basically
caused by gravitational collapse, since calcium reinforces the structure
thereby leading to a more limited collapse, above all in treatments
till 20 Brix.