Short steam blanching coupled with flash-vacuum expansion (FVE) and de-pulping was used to obtain purée from purple passion fruits discarded from the export chain. Different steam blanching holding times (80, 95, 110 s) were tested at pressure of 130 kPa. After FVE and vacuum de-pulping, fibers, anthocyanins, carotenoids, rheological properties, and microbial reduction were evaluated in the purées. Fruit purées are obtained with a much higher content of cell-wall and bioactive compounds compared to the fresh arils since part of the fruit shell is incorporated into the purée (approximately 20%), which greatly increases the yield of production. Purées exhibited increasing shear-thinning flow behavior with blanching holding time, resulting in a smoothie-like beverage. A reduction greater than 5 log10 CFU/mL was obtained for molds, yeasts, aerobic mesophilic, and coliforms for all the treatments. The shelf life of smoothies based on nutritional and sensorial quality was extended up to 90 days at refrigeration temperature.

Goldenberry has great potential for the development of high-quality products due to its attractive sensory attributes, bioactive compounds, and health benefits. However, postharvest losses are high due to the lack of processing technologies that can both be adapted to rural conditions in producing countries to generate high-quality products. Flash vacuum expansion coupled with vacuum pulping is a new process that can meet these requirements. In the process, the steam holding time (30, 40, and 50 s/130 kPa) and flash vacuum expansion (5 ± 1.2 kPa) were studied. The logarithmic reduction of microbial load and some quality indicators were analyzed during the process and during storage to assess the shelf life of fruit purées. The FVE process with 40 s steam blanching led to a microbial reduction of over 6 log colony forming units (CFU)/g, increased yield and β-carotene content, and preserved most of the AA content (4–12%). Based on the half-lives of the quality indicators, the shelf life of the purées was between 16 d (20 °C) and 90 d (4 °C). The energy consumption was estimated at approximately 0.30 kWh/kg of product. These results demonstrate that the FVE process, although it includes heat treatment, allows a short exposure to heat of the whole fruits to obtain a high-quality puree with an adequate shelf life in a single step, with a relatively low equipment investment and moderate energy consumption.

Apple pomace is an agro-industrial byproduct high in dietary fiber, with composition varying based on the extraction process. In this study, components of insoluble fiber (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, NDF, and ADF) were quantified using the Van Soest method in pomace flours obtained from two industrial processes: turbo extraction (Process A) and mechanical pressing (Process B). The data served to calibrate and validate predictive models using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Chemometric tools (PCA, PLS-DA) effectively discriminated between the two types, with sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy reaching 1, 1, and 100%, respectively. Artificial neural network (ANN) models accurately predicted insoluble fiber contents, with R2 values up to 0.998 in calibration and 0.989 in validation. These results demonstrate that NIR combined with chemometric and machine learning techniques is a rapid, non-destructive, and effective method for characterizing the chemical composition and insoluble fiber fractions in apple pomace from different industrial sources.