QUALITY OF VANILLA (Vanilla planifolia Jacks. ex Andrews) PACKAGED WITH DIFFERENT PLASTIC FILMS

Abstract

The retail sale of vanilla pods (Vanilla planifolia Jacks. ex Andrews) has increased in recent years; however, the loss of moisture and aroma during commercialization leads to leads to short shelf life. Because of this, different materials for packaging were evaluated, simple or double cellophane (C), polyethylene (P) and vacuum with polyethylene film (V), with one and five vanilla siliques (fruits) per bag, packaged for six months, from two curing companies. The packaging with five fruits lost less moisture and maintained the vanillin content in a constant manner. Significant relationships were found between moisture and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (-0.77), moisture-vanillin (-0.82), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid-vanillic acid (0.88), and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde-vanillin (0.85), with the use of double films resulting as the best packaging to market fruits for retail in numbers higher than one silique.