Effectiveness of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon, cv. Pilgrim) vacuum impregnation: The effect of sample pretreatment, pressure, and processing time

This study aimed to determine the effects of vacuum impregnation (VI) on the effectiveness of enrichment of cranberry fruit with ascorbic acid. During the research, different strategies of fruit preparation that might improve impregnation in a ternary solution containing ascorbic acid, citric acid, and sucrose were tested. The evaluation of the processes was based on an analysis of impregnation efficiency, selected quality parameters, and alterations of internal structure. The results confirm that VI proceeds efficiently with heat-treated or bisected cranberry. The pressure and length of the individual process stages also affect impregnation efficiency. The lower the pressure and/or the longer the impregnation time, the higher the ascorbic acid content in the fruit. It can be concluded that VI is an effective method for enriching difficult to process berries with valuable compounds.