Evaluation of Boil Peeling in Three Kiwifruit Cultivars

Abstract

Boil peeling has potential as a simple technique for rinding kiwifruit. In order to evaluate its performance for processing, we investigated suitable maturity for boil peeling, labor-saving characteristics, and fruit quality attributes in comparison with knife peeling. Boil peeling was acceptable only for ripened fruit of three cultivars (‘Hayward’, ‘Rainbow red’, and ‘Shizuoka gold’) and had the advantages of promoting a shorter processing time and reduced loss in comparison with knife peeling. While the surface area of the fruit processed with boil peeling was larger than that of knife-peeled fruit, flesh firmness and contents of sugar, organic acid, and ascorbic acid were not different between the two processing methods. No flesh browning or dull color development was observed with boil peeling, despite a slight color difference between the two processing methods. These results suggest that boil peeling is a promising technique for processing kiwifruit.