Screening quality and browning susceptibility of five artichoke cultivars for fresh‐cut processing

BACKGROUND: Artichoke is a rich source of bioactive compounds, mainly phenols, in the Mediterranean diet, but its consumption is limited by the complexity of time‐consuming trimming operations. Fresh‐cut processing would therefore add convenience to its consumption, even though the severity of post‐cutting browning of artichoke pieces is still a major problem. Since susceptibility to browning may vary widely among genotypes, the choice of the cultivar is a very critical step in the fresh‐cut process. In this study, five different Italian cultivars (C3, Catanese, Tema, Violetto Foggiano and Violetto Sardo) were screened for their initial quality and composition, and their post‐cutting performance during storage at 5 °C and 20 °C. RESULTS: C3 showed the highest phenol content (3.4 g GA kg −1 ) and antioxidant activity (24.5 mmol L −1 kg −1 ), but the worst quality in terms of appearance and colour changes, also due to its high PPO activity (62.2 U g −1 ). Catanese showed the highest vitamin C content (117.7 mg kg −1 ), the lowest phenol content (1.8 g GA kg −1 ), and the best post‐cutting quality. Tema, Violetto Foggiano and Violetto Sardo showed an intermediate phenol content, the latter showing the lowest appearance score after C3. CONCLUSION: These results confirmed the role of phenols in browning processes of fresh‐cut artichokes, giving the first available information on artichoke cultivar suitability to be processed as a fresh‐cut product.