Abstract
Fresh peppermints, spearmints and Japanesemints were stored at 2°C and 20°C, and the effect of packing with polyethylene bag (30μm thick. PE), polyethylene stretch film (12μm thick. PES) and polyvinyl chloride stretch film (16μm thick. PVCS) on the keeping quality of mints was studied.
The rate of weight loss was the greatest in PVCS package with all kinds of mints and at both temperatures. The freshness of mints in PVCS, rapidly deteriorated to the limit of saling after storage for 3days at 20°C while it was kept for 7days in PE and PES packages. At 2°C storage, the deteriorating rate of the quality was almost same among the three films and salable quality was kept for 20 days. Chlorophyll, ascorbic acid and free amino acid contents in all kinds of mints decreased during storage, but no difference of their changes among packaging films was observed.
The aroma evaluation score decreased with the progress of the storage time, and the rate was faster in PVCS and PE than in PES at both temperatures.
The decrease rate was higher in spearemints and markedly lower in Japanesemints.
It was concluded that the appearance and aroma of the mints should be the most important scale to evaluate the quality of fresh mints. PES was the most effective to keep the quality of mints the three kinds of films.
