0960–3085/06/$30.00+0.

00
# 2006 Institution of Chemical Engineers
www.icheme.org/fbp Trans IChemE, Part C, June 2006
doi: 10.1205/fbp.05200 Food and Bioproducts Processing, 84(C2): 109– 113

CHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION

OF PORTUGUESE VARIETIES OF PEARS
M. J. BARROCA, R. P. F. GUINÉ , A. PINTO, F. M. GONÇALVES and D. M. S. FERREIRA
Department of Food Engineering, ESAV, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Viseu, Portugal

T
he sun-dried pears of the local variety known as S. Bartolomeu, found in the centre of
Portugal, are relatively small fruits, characterized by an intense reddish brown colour,
that loose their pronounced astringency with drying. However, and since their
production has been declining over the past decades, there has been an increasing interest
in drying also for other varieties of pears, also with small dimensions, as an alternative to
produce the dried pears.
The aim of this work is the evaluation of the nutritional properties of fresh and dried pears
of the local varieties known as Amêndoa, Amorim, Carapinheira Branca and S. Bartolomeu,
all original from of the centre of Portugal.
The results enable us to conclude that the fresh pear pulp of all varieties has a low content
of protein and a high level of total sugars, as is generally true for fruit. However, their values
of dietary fiber ranged between 12 and 15% (dry mass) constituting these pears a potential
source of dietary fibre.
In addition, it is also possible to conclude that, apparently, the solar stove-drying process
has no effect on the nutritional characteristics of the pears, except on total sugars and acidity.
The range of water activity values and microbial charge of the different pears also allow infer-
ring that the dried fruits obtained from the four varieties studied are potentially safe from a
microbiological point of view. The resemblance in the characteristics of the fruits, together
with the similarity of behaviour towards drying, suggests that the fruits of the varieties
Carapinheira Branca, Amêndoa and Amorim can be viewed as a good alternative to those
of the variety S. Bartolomeu for the production of dried pears.

Keywords: dried pears; drying; chemical composition; microbiological analysis.

INTRODUCTION of soluble dietary fibre, whereas cereal fibres contain more

The pear (Pyrus communis L.) is a typical fruit of temperate
zones and is cultivated in Europe, among other regions.
Due to its nutritive properties, good taste and low caloric
level, the pear is a much appreciated fruit by the consu-
mers. It has a low content of protein and lipids and is
rich in sugars such as fructose, sorbitol, sucrose and, in
lower amount, glucose. It has been found that pears contain
12.4% sugars, 0.5% protein, 0.3% lipids, 2.8% fibre (Senser
et al., 1999). Apart from their richness in macronutrients,
they also possess others nutritional components, such as
vitamins, minerals and antioxidants as well as bioactive
elements, that are important sources of health-beneficial
compounds (Senser et al., 1999; Silos-Espino et al.,
2003). The fibre derived from fruits and vegetables also
has positive physiologic effects due to the higher proportion

Correspondence to: Professor R. P. F. Guiné, Department of Food Engin-
eering, ESAV, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Quinta da Alagoa. Estrada
de Nelas, Ranhados, 3500-606 Viseu, Portugal.
E-mail: raquelguine@esav.ipv.pt
insoluble cellulose and hemicelluloses (Thebaudin et al.,
1997). Since pears have a higher dietary fibre level than
those of some common fruits and vegetables, their fibre
can be seen as a potential food additive (McKee and
Latner, 2000).
Although pears can be consumed fresh they are also
commonly submitted to processing techniques as the
conserves in syrup, purées for use in nectars, yogurts and
drying (Park et al., 2002). The drying of fruits is a very
ancient practice for food preservation, particularly for
fruits of small dimension. Moreover, the chemical and sen-
sorial transformations that occur during the drying process
influence its end-product quality and have a decisive influ-
ence on its attractiveness to the consumer. Enzymatic and
non-enzymatic reactions between reducing sugars and pro-
teins/amines yields both volatile flavour components and
brown compounds that change the colour, flavour and tex-
ture of the dried product (Baltes, 1982; Monsalve-González
et al., 1994). The tradition in the Beira Alta region of
Portugal is to sun-dry a S. Bartolomeu variety, resulting
in a small sun-dried pear that is very appreciated in

109
110 BARROCA et al.
Portugal. Such drying process provokes changes in taste,
colour, flavour and texture which result in a reddish
brown pear with unique elastic properties (Ferreira et al.,
2001).
Nevertheless, its production is small nowadays due to
few and very old pear trees, the complexity and slowness
of the traditional drying process, to the intensive handwork
and space requirements and to the shortcomings associated
with the natural sun drying (Guiné and Castro, 2002).
Details of the traditional solar drying method have been
reported (Ferreira et al., 2002; Guiné and Castro, 2003).
However, the traditional sun-drying at open-air can be
experimentally replaced by a solar stove-drying process
on an experimental scale, which, while maintaining the
properties of the traditional sun-dried pear, allows an
important reduction in the drying time and a higher
safety of the sun-dried product (unpublished data).
Since the production of S. Bartolomeu dried pear is mod-
erate nowadays, other varieties are gaining importance on
the market, such as Amorim, Amêndoa and Carapinheira
Branca, which are very sweet and quite small and also
exhibit good drying features. Thus, the aim of this paper
is to evaluate the nutritional properties of the four varieties
of pears, either fresh or after drying in solar stove-dryers, in
order to contribute to a better knowledge of the chemical
changes of the Portuguese varieties of pears that can, even-
tually, replace the traditional S. Bartolomeu dried pears.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The chemical composition of pear pulp of Amêndoa,
Carapinheira Branca and S. Bartolomeu varieties was
determined in duplicate in both fresh and dried states.
The drying process for the peeled and uncut pears was
carried out using a solar stove, under monitored tempera-
ture and relative humidity conditions, which ranged from
198C to 358C and 20% to 75%, respectively. The drying
process was finished when the final water content of the
pears reached 20% approximately, since this is the value
that allows good preservation characteristics as well as
good final physical and chemical properties (Guiné and
Castro, 2002). The dried pears were stored in plastic bags
at 48C, under vacuum. Samples corresponding to a quarter
of peeled and uncored fresh pears were lyophilized and
packed in plastic bags covered by aluminium paper and
left in a desiccator.
The hardness of the peeled fresh pears was determined
by a presser tester with 8 mm of diameter. The moisture
content of the pears pulp was determined with a Halogen
Moisture Analyzer (Mettler Toledo HG53). Total and redu-
cing sugars, as well as acidity, were estimated according to
previous established methodologies (AOAC, 1990). The
ash content was determined by incineration at 5508C,
following the AOAC method, and the protein content was
Table 1. Chemical composition of the fresh pears (expressed as a percentage of the dry mass).
Pear variety Total sugar Reducing sugar
S. Bartolomeu 70.7 58.3
Carapinheira Branca 57.5 31.0
Amorim 64.3 41.1
Amêndoa 61.2 32.3
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C2): 109– 113
estimated by the micro-Kjeldhal digestion procedure
(AOAC, 1990). The quantification of total (TDF), soluble
(SDF) and insoluble (IDF) dietary fibre was based on an
enzymatic-gravimetric method (Prosky et al., 1988).
The microbial charges of mesophyll, mould, yeast and
coloformes on dried pears were based on counting of
colony, expressed as CFU (colony forming unit) per gram.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After short-time storage the pears varieties were analysed
in terms of hardness. The hardness of the fresh pears of the
varieties Amorim, Carapinheira Branca and Amêndoa was
7.5, 5.8 and 4.0 N, respectively, and this property was not
determined for the S. Bartolomeu variety. The moisture
content for the four lyophilized pears was around 7%.
The results presented in Table 1 reveal that the pulp of
fresh pears has low protein, ash and crude fibre contents
that are in agreement to the chemical composition of
pears, and are comparable to other fruits (Senser et al.,
1999). In addition, it can be stated that these properties
are similar for the four varieties of pears studied.
It has been suggested by previous literature that the
sugar/acid ratio can be used as a criterion for the ripeness
of fresh fruits (Pal and Kumar, 1995). Based on those prop-
erties taken for the fresh pears it is possible to conclude that
their ratio was between 9 and 12 for the Amorim and
S. Bartolomeu varieties, and ranged from 26 to 29 for the
Carapinheira Branca and Amêndoa. However, these results
can be associated not only with the ripening stage, since the
total sugars to acidity ratio rises when the hardness
decreases, but also with the intrinsic characteristics of the
variety. In fact, a reduction of 1.7 units in the hardness
between Amorim and Carapinheira Branca varieties
allows an increase on sugar/acid ratio of 17 units while
the same hardness reduction between Carapinheira
Branca and Amêndoa leads to an increase of only 3 units
for the same ratio.
Moreover, the results show that the pears under study
have a high content of total sugar, as it is generally found
in the majority of other fruits. Among the four varieties
studied it is possible to conclude that S. Bartolomeu and
Carapinheira Branca are the ones that present the higher
(70.7%) and lower content (61.2%), respectively. In
general, the percentage of reducing sugar found in these
varieties of pears is also in agreement to Senser’s (1999)
results. However, the S. Bartolomeu variety has a ratio of
reducing sugar to total sugar of 0.82, that is higher than
the other pear varieties, for which the ratio ranges between
0.53 and 0.64.
In this study, the Amêndoa had the lower acidity, in
opposition to Amorim variety with the higher value. This
may be not only due to the ripeness of fruit but also related
with the variety and cultivation.
Acidity Protein Crude fibre Ash
5.7 1.5 6.3 1.6
2.2 1.8 9.1 1.9
7.2 2.6 9.1 2.4
2.1 1.7 10.9 2.1
 CHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PEARS
Table 2. Dietary fibre of the fresh pears expressed as a percentage of the
dry mass.
Soluble Insoluble Total
Pear variety dietary fibre dietary fibre dietary fibre
S. Bartolomeu 2.0 8.1 11.7
Carapinheira Branca 2.8 14.3 15.3
Amorim 4.0 10.0 14.8
Amêndoa 3.6 10.3 14.2

Experimental values.
It is commonly known that the dietary fibre plays an
important role in diminishing the risks of many disorders
such as constipation, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases,
diverticulosis and obesity (Spiller, 2001). However, their
physiological effects are related to the physicochemical
and functional properties of dietary fibre, which depend
on the source and on the processing that food urdergo
(Chau and Huang, 2003). Frequently, the food composition
tables found in the literature usually spotlight the crude
fibre content and not the dietary content of the products.
The polysaccharides, comprising a major part of dietary
fibre in fruits and vegetables, are well known as beneficial
to human health. In the case of the pears the importance of
such property is highlighted by its richness in dietary fibre
(Grigelmo-Miguel and Martı́n-Belloso, 1999).
Table 2 list the values of dietary fibre for the four var-
ieties and it is possible to see that their values range
between 12% and 15% (dry mass). When comparing the
results of the present study with those previously reported
in the literature it is possible to see that there are some dis-
crepancies (Bartolomé et al., 1995; Ramulu and Rao, 2003;
Martin-Cabrejas et al., 1995). The difference of values can
be associated with variety, sample preparation (pommace,
fruit bagasse, (un)peeled fruit, fruit residues from juice
extraction) or even different methodologies in measuring
of dietary fibre. Other factors such as differences in genetic
make-up and agronomic and climatic conditions of cultiva-
tion could contribute to this discrepancy. The results, how-
ever, are in agreement with those reported by Leontowicz
et al. (2002) for similar sample preparations (peeled fruit).
Besides the dietary fibre content, the SDF/IDF ratio is
also important for both, dietary and functional properties
(Jaime et al., 2002). It is generally accepted that those
fibre sources are suitable for use as food ingredient if
they have a SDF/IDF ratio close to 1 : 2, and as it can be
seen from Table 2 the values obtained are higher than
that (between 1 : 2.5 and 1 : 5). However, this ratio is
lower than the correspondent for other fruits such as
grapefruit, lemon, orange, apple (Figuerola et al., 2005).
The usual sources of dietary fibre in fibre-enriched food
are cereals but the TDF of the fruits can have good
Table 3. Chemical composition of the dried pears (expressed as a percentage of the dry mass).
Pear variety Total sugar Reducing sugar
S. Bartolomeu 21.7 22.5
Carapinheira Branca 38.0 22.4
Amorim 35.6 36.5
Amêndoa 28.5 27.7
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C2): 109 –113
111
physiologic effects, even better than those of cereals,
which have a very low SDF proportion (0.40 – 3.17%, dry
matter) (Grigelmo-Miguel and Martı́n-Belloso, 1999).
Table 2 shows that the soluble dietary fibre of the four var-
ieties ranges between 17% and 25% of the total dietary
fibre content. This is a relatively high range in comparison
with other fruit and vegetable processing by-products
(Grigelmo-Miguel and Martı́n-Belloso, 1999). Further-
more, this percentage of SDF on pears (higher than 15%)
allows binding and retaining several times their weight of
water (Figuerola et al., 2005).
The SDF (almost pectins) content of the pears is in
accordance with that reported by Ferreira (2003), where
pectic polysaccharides represented 36% of the cell wall
S. Bartolomeu fresh pears. The values of SDF obtained to
the other three varieties of pears indicate, eventually, a
higher proportion of pectins on their cell walls.
After the solar stove-drying process the water content
of the four varieties of pears ranged between 14.9%
and 22.0%, corresponding to water contents that lead
to the inhibition of microbial growth and, consequently, to
the preservation of the fruits by long periods (Martins,
1988). During the pear dehydration process the pears
undergo high temperatures that favour enzymatic and non-
enzymatic browning which darken the product (Monsalve-
González et al., 1994). The different brown coloration
observed after the drying process can be influenced by
various factors, including variety and fruit ripeness.
The chemical composition of the dried pears is illustrated
in Tables 3 and 4, and the results highlight that the drying
process permits keeping the nutritional characteristics of
the dried pears as they were in the fresh state. It is, however
important to notice that there are exceptions, like the sugars
and acidity contents, which diminished with drying. In fact,
the decrease in the acidity of dried pears can, eventually,
indicate that the major part of the acidity present in the
fresh pears is volatile, and therefore, the temperature profile
during the drying process promotes its loss by evaporation.
The reduction of total sugars in dried pears, due to enzy-
matic and non-enzymatic browning, varied between 34%
and 69% for the Carapinheira Branca and S. Bartolomeu
varieties, respectively, when compared to the values of
the total sugars in the fresh fruits. Comparing these two
varieties with the remaining ones, these are also the var-
ieties that present the higher reduction of reducing sugars,
approximately 61%. However, the ratio between the total
sugars to the acidity for each variety of dried pears is simi-
lar to those observed in fresh pears.
The drying process maintained the total dietary fibre con-
tent and SDF/IDF ratio of the four pear varieties similar to
what was found in the fresh fruits. In addition, from the
point of view of dietary fiber the four Portuguese varieties
are comparable. According to Grigelmo-Miguel and
Acidity Protein Crude fibre Ash
3.4 1.9 7.5 1.9
1.4 1.9 13.4 2.3
4.0 2.6 9.5 2.0
1.3 2.0 9.5 2.0
112
Table 4. Dietary fibre of the dried pears (expressed as a percentage of the
dry mass).
Insoluble
Pear variety Soluble dietary fibre dietary fibre dietary fibre
S. Bartolomeu 2.0 8.5
Carapinheira Branca 4.1 16.5
Amorim 3.0 13.7
Amêndoa 2.4 11.3

Experimental values.
Martı́n-Belloso (1999) the water holding capacity of dried
pear fibre is 6.8 (g water/g fibre) which is greater than that
of other fruits and cereals, such as seedless grapefruit, citrus
husk, apple, orange wheat bran and oat bran, among others.
This property of hydration of pears dietary fibre could
increase stool weight and potentially slow the rate of nutrient
adsorption from the intestine (Figuerola et al., 2005). Thus,
dried pears are good sources of fibre, with well balanced
proportion between soluble and insoluble fraction.
Besides their nutritional and functional properties, the
dietary fibre also has technological properties that can
be used in the formulation of food products, as for example
its texture modification (Thebaudin et al., 1997). Therefore,
different types of dietary fibres, such as pea, apple and
citrus fibre are now being incorporated into foods. Since
the dietary fibre of the dried pears is similar to the fibre
of other fruits, such as apples and citrus fibres, the dried
pears can, eventually, be a good element to incorporate in
fibre-enriched foods. Besides this, dried pears have a
good processing behaviour, good appearance, colour, fla-
vour and texture that are necessary requirements for food
ingredient (Jaime et al., 2002). The astringency of the
fresh pears studied; specifically of S. Bartolomeu variety
was lost along the drying. The change of this characteristic
during the processing is associated with the presence of
phenolic compounds. During the sun-drying, Ferreira
et al. (2002) reported a decrease of 64% (on a dry pulp
basis) in the total amount of native phenolic compound
(3.7 g per kg of fresh pulp) of S. Bartolomeu variety. Yet,
pears’ fibres have better quality than other dietary fibres
due to the presence of associated bioactive compounds,
such as flavonoids and polyphenols (Ferreira et al., 2002;
Fernández-Gines et al., 2003).
Table 5 shows the results of the microbiological determi-
nation and water activity (aw) for the four varieties of pears.
Dried fruits with water activity in the range 0.72– 0.8 are
largely protected against microbial spoilage (Rao and
Rizvi, 1986). Thus, in all of the four varieties of pears
the water activity values, below 0.68, retard or inhibit the
Table 5. Water activity, coloformes and mesophyll counts in dried pears.
(UFC/g)
Pear variety Water activity Coloformes
S. Bartolomeu 0.47 n.d.
Carapinheira Branca 0.58 n.d.
Amorim 0.58 n.d.
Amêndoa 0.68 n.d.
n.d., not detectable.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C2): 109– 113
BARROCA et al.
growth of microorganisms and, consequently, increases
their food shelf life.
Total Additionally, the yeast and mould counts have also been
determined in dried pears of the variety S. Bartolomeu, and
a value of 10 CFU/g was obtained. The residual values of
12.6
21.1 microorganisms are in accordance with the aw levels, since
15.9 the yeast and mould growth is inhibited for aw values below
17.7 0.7 and 0.8, respectively (Rao and Rizvi, 1986). Thus, the
range of values found for water activity and microbial
charge in the different varieties of pears allows inferring
that these foods will be potentially safe on the microbiolo-
gical point of view.
CONCLUSIONS
From the results presented was possible to conclude that
the fresh pears of the four regional varieties have low
protein content and are rich in total sugars, as it happens
with the generality of fruits. For the four varieties, however,
the total dietary fibre content ranged between 12% and 15%
(on a dry mass basis), which is higher when compared to
that found in other fruits and even in some cereals that are
generally considered as a good source of dietary fibre.
The results also reveal that the solar stove-drying process
did not modify the nutritional properties of the pears of the
four varieties, with the exception of the total sugars and
acidity contents, which are more affected by the high
temperatures in the drying process. However, the sugar/
acid ratio remained approximately constant.
Based on both parameters, water activity and microbial
charge, for the four varieties of pears it can be inferred
that the dried product is a safety food. This fact, associated
with the nutritional value of the dried pears, allows
concluding that the commercialization of this product
represents a good alternative to its consumption in fresh.
Moreover, the small dimensions of all the pears under
study, together with their identical response towards
drying and similar nutritional properties, suggest that
Carapinheira Branca, Amêndoa and Amorim varieties are
potential alternatives to S. Bartolomeu for the production
of dried pears.
REFERENCES
Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), 1990, Official
methods of analysis, 16th edition (Association of Official Analytical
Chemists, Washington, DC, USA).
Baltes, W., 1982, Chemical changes in food by the maillard reaction, Food
Chemistry, 9: 59–73.
Bartolomé, B., Jiménez-Ramsey, L.M. and Butler, L.G., 1995, Nature of
the condensed tannins present in the dietary fibre fractions in foods.
Food Chemistry, 53: 357 –362.
Chau, C.F. and Huang, Y.L., 2003, Comparison of the chemical compo-
sition and physicochemical properties of different fibres prepared from
the peel of Citrus sinensis L. Cv. Liucheng, Journal of Agricultural
and Food Chemistry, 51: 2615–2618.
Fernández-Gines, J.M., Fernández-López, J., Sayas-Barberá, E. and Pérez-
Alvarez, J.A., 2003, Effects of storage conditions on quality character-
istics of bologna sausages made with citrus fibre, J Food Sci,
Mesophyl 68: 710 –715.
Ferreira, D., Coimbra, M.A. and Delgadillo, I., 2001, Use of FT-IR spec-
92 000 troscopy to follow the effect of processing in cell wall polysaccharide
10 extracts of a sun-dried pear, Carbohydrate Polymer, 45: 175–182.
10 Ferreira, D., Guyot, S., Marnet, N., Delgadillo, I., Renard, C.M.G.C. and
5300 Coimbra, M.A., 2002, Composition of phenolic compound in a portuguese
pear (Pyrus communis L. var. S. Bartolomeu) and changes after sun-
drying, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50: 4537–4544.
 CHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PEARS
Ferreira, D., 2003, Estudo das transformações bioquı́micas e quı́micas
da pêra de S. Bartolomeu durante o processo de secagem—recurso
endógeno da região de Viseu, PhD thesis, Aveiro University.
Figuerola, F., Hurtado, M.L., Estévez, A.M., Chiffelle, I. and Asenjo, F.,
2005, Fibre concentrates from apple pomace and citrus peel as potential
fibre sources for food enrichment, Food Chem, 91: 395–401.
Guiné, R.P.F. and Castro, J.A.A.M., 2002, Pear drying process analysis:
drying rates and evaluation of water and sugar concentrations in space
and time, Drying Technology, 20: 1515– 1522.
Guiné, R.P.F. and Castro, J.A.A.M., 2003, Analysis of moisture content
and density of pears during drying, Drying Technology, 21: 581 –591.
Grigelmo-Miguel, N. and M.N., Martı́n-Belloso, O., 1999, Characteriz-
ation of dietary fiber from orange juice extraction, Food Research Inter-
national, 31: 355 –361.
Jaime, L., Mollá, E., Fernandéz, A., Martı́n-Cabrejas, M., López-Andreu, F.
and Esteban, R., 2002, Structural carbohydrates differences and potential
source of dietary fiber of onion (Allium cepa L.) tissues, Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50: 122–128.
Leontowicz, H., Gorinstein, S., Lojek, A., Leontowicz, M., Cı́z, L., Soliva-
Fortuny, R., Park, Y.-S., Jung, S.-T., Trakhtenberg, S. and Martin-
Belloso, O., 2002, Comparative content of some bioactive compound
in apples, peaches and pears and their influence on lipids and antioxidant
capacity in rats, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 13: 603 –610.
Martin-Cabrejas, M.A., Esteban, R.M., Lopez-Andreu, F.J., Waldron, K.
and Selendran, R.R., 1995, Dietary fiber content of pear and kiwi
pomaces, Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 43: 662–666.
Martins, M.A.G.N., 1988, Alguns Aspectos da Secagem de Frutos Através
da Energia Solar, A Hortifruticultura Algarvia—Que Futuro? Proceed-
ings Book (Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal).
McKee, L.H. and Latner, T.A., 2000, Underutilized sources of dietary
fiber: a review, Plant Foods Human Nutrition, 55: 285 –304.
Monsalve-González, A., Barbosa-Canovas, G.V., McEvily, A.J. and
Lyengar, R., 1994, Inhibition of enzymatic browning in apple products
by 4-hexylresorcinol, Food Technol, 4: 110–118.
Pal, D.K. and Kumar, P.S., 1995, Changes in the physico-chemical and
biochemical compositions of custard apple (Annona squamosa L.)
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C2): 109 –113
113
fruit during growth, development and ripening, Journal of Horticultural
Science, 70: 569– 572.
Park, K.J., Bin, A. and Brod, F.P.R., 2003, Drying of pear d’Anjou
with and without osmotic dehydration, Journal of Food Engineering,
56: 97 –103.
Prosky, L., Asp, L., Scheweizer, T.F., De Vries, J.W. and Furda, I., 1988,
Determination of insoluble, soluble, and total dietary fiber in foods and
food products: interlaboratory study, Journal Association Official
Analytical Chemists, 71: 1017–1023.
Ramulu, P. and Rao, P.U., 2003, Total, insoluble and soluble dietary fiber
contents of Indian fruits, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis,
16: 677 –685.
Rao, M.A. and Rizvi, S.S.H., 1986, Engineering Properties of Foods, 2nd
edition (Marcel Dekker, New York, USA).
Senser, F., Scherz, H. and München, G., 1999, Tablas de Composición de
Alimentos, 2nd edition (Editorial Acribia, Zaragoza).
Silos-Espino, H., Fabian-Morales, L., Osuna-Castro, J.A., Valverde, E.,
Guevara-Lara, F. and Paredes-López, O., 2003, Chemical and biochemi-
cal changes in prickly pears with different ripening behaviour,
Nahrung/Food, 47: 334–338.
Spiller, G.A., 2001, Dietary fiber in prevention and treatment of disease, In
Spiller, G.A. (ed.). CRC Handbook of Dietary Fiber in Human Nutri-
tion, 363–431 (CRC Press LLC, Washington, USA).
Thebaudin, J.Y., Lefebvre, A.C., Harrington, M. and Bourgeois, C.M.,
1997, Dietary fibres: nutritional and technological interest, Trend in
Food Science Technology, 8: 41–48.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors thank the financial support of the Portuguese Ministry of
Agriculture (Project AGRO no 158-2001).
The manuscript was received 18 August 2005 and accepted for
publication after revision 16 February 2006.