COLOR CHANGES OF THE CARROT LEAVES PESTO DURING STORAGE

Abstract

Carrot leaves are usually thrown away, despite being a potential source of nutrients. One way to use carrot leaves is to make a pesto out of them. The aim of the study was to evaluate how the storage temperature and duration influence the color of the carrot leaves pesto. The research was carried out in the Plant Raw Materials Quality Laboratory of the Open Access Joint Research Center for Land and Forestry of the Academy of Agriculture of Vytautas Magnus University. The produced carrot leaves pesto was stored at different temperatures - 8, 4 and -22°C - and kept respectively for 14, 26 and 33 days. The color of the carrot leaves pesto was assessed with the ColorFlex color analyzer (Hunter Lab, USA), indicating its color intensity in NBS units. The obtained research data was analysed by the two-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) method, using the computer program "STATISTICA". This experiment has proven that the storage temperature and time affects the color of the carrot leaves pesto. The sauce darkens when it is stored in positive temperature and becomes lighter in negative temperature . The intensity of the green color does not change up to 33 days when the pesto is stored at -22 °C temperature. However, storing pesto at 4 and at 8 °C decreases the intensity of the sauces green color. Meanwhile, the yellow color of the sauce intensifies throughout the storage. The values of the b* coordinate increased substantially after 26 days, regardless of the storage temperature.