Hi, can anyone help me on this topic?
Should i blend everything into a paste?
Thanks in advance.
Hi SZY,
Forming a puree is not the right way to do it as this will give you a distorted high result.
I was Food Technnologist for All States Food Service which was the biggest salad manufacturer in Australia supplying major retail chains.
Salad pH is difficult to measure but not impossible.
Firstly the pH will equilibrate over the first 5 days after manufacture. i.e. it will go up as the acid is absorbed and buffering and microbial activities occur.
You need to measure the pH every day for the first 5 days to be sure what is happening with each of your salad types.
You will need to give you pH meter/electrode time to find its highest value.......does not change for 20-30 seconds.
I offsett the rise in pH in our salads by adding extra acid. You cannot just add any acid as this will make the product too tart.I recommend you use 90% lactic acid (which has a soft acid taste) in addition to your standard citrics & acetics to target a day 5 pH of 4.2 maximum.
The pH electrode will need to be regularly cleaned and buffered to ensure the readings are true and as responsive as possible. Careful effort is neede to ensure no buffer cross contamination and that buffers are fresh and changed often (buffer tables are great for this)We found that a soak in 0.1M HCl was necessary each week to avoid biofilm forming on the glass.
Please let me know if you need help with technologies I developed e.g. removing pathogens and extending shelf life beyond 7 days!
regards,
Kevin Woodman