Tian Ding;Wonder Alexandre Luiz Alves;Sidnei Alves de Araújo;José Carlos Curvelo Santana;Jiangang Ling;Jianchu Chen;Donghong Li

#R##N#2. Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P.R. China;Ningbo Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Ningbo 315040, P.R. China;Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.;1. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, #R##N#Hangzhou 310058, China;Industrial Engineering Post Graduation Program, Nine July University, 05001-100, São Paulo, Brazil;#R##N#2. Fuli Institute of Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P.R. Chin

vacuum cooling;broccoli;the weight;loss;developed;simulated annealin

Water-spraying is regarded as an effective method to reduce the weight loss of product during vacuum cooling process. This study aimed to investigate the effect of vacuum cooling factors on the weight loss of postharvest broccoli, and attempted to optimize the treatment conditions by simulated annealing (SA) technique. An algorithm based on simulated annealing meta-heuristic technique was developed to identify the optimum condition for vacuum cooling treatment of broccoli. Results demonstrated that the SA algorithm could adjust well with the simulation of the broccoli cooling process. The best condition was at 200 Pa of pressure, 274 g broccoli, 6% of water volume and 40 min processing time. Under this condition, a product with only 0.35% of weight loss and 1.48 degrees C final temperature was obtained. The developed method may help to effectively control the weight loss during vacuum cooling process and reducing the economic loss.