Ripening Stage Effects on Mechanical and Functional Properties of Pastry Filled with Sweet Cherries (Prunus avium, ‘Ferrovia’ Cultivar)

Sweet cherry is a precious fruit for the wealth of minerals, vitamins and other important protecting, detoxifying and purifying principles. These features make it interesting in terms of nutritional and health point of view. Many studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects on prevention of cardiovascular and articular diseases, due to anti-inflammatory and analgesic action of sweet cherry. However, because of its seasonality, it needs technological treatments to be preserved (jam, puree or semi-finished products for pastry), that could compromise its nutritional quality. The aim of this work was to study the effects of ripening stage and technological tratments on mechanical and functional properties of pastries filled with sweet cherries during storage at room temperature. Results showed that the different ripeness of cherries influenced the mechanical properties of samples: pastries filled with overripe cherries resulted more hard (97 vs. 79 N), less cohesive (0.19 vs. 0.25) and springy (6.4 vs. 8.5 mm) than medium harvest cherries. The antioxidant capacity of medium harvest sweet cherries did not change after both technological treatments and storage (0.93 vs. 0.89 TEAC micromol/g dry basis). These results highlight the importance of ripening stage of processed fruit used as ingredient in complex food in order to obtain a product with good functional and quality properties.