Osmotic treatments
Osmotic dehydration was carried out at atmospheric pressure (OD) and by applying a vacuum pulse (5 min, 50 mbar) at the beginning of the process (PVOD). The ratio of solution – fruit was high enough (15:1 (w/w)) to avoid significant changes in the con- centration of the solution during the process. Treatments were car- ried out at 30 °C by using 50 °Brix glucose solution as osmotic agent, containing or not 1% (w/w) of calcium lactate. Samples were dehydrated till 15 and 20 °Brix, respectively.
In order to avoid the effect of fruit variability on the response to calcium treatments, the same fruit specimens were used in both treatments for experiments with and without calcium, one half of each for each treatment.