This study was conducted to investigate the effects of pretreatment and different packaging methods on the physicochemical properties of cold vacuum-dried peaches. All the dried peach samples were stored such as N2 gas substitution, vacuum and passive packaged with polyethylene (PE) film and oriented polypropylene (OPP)/aluminum (Al)/PE film at 40℃ for 50 days. The weight change, pH, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, soluble solid-acid ratio (SS/TA), delta E, browning degree and phenolic compounds were analyzed. The weight change and pH were lower in the 0.1% vitamin C-treated group and were significantly lowest in the vacuum-treated OPP/AL/PE. The soluble solids content and the SS/TA were higher in the non-treated groups than in the vitamin C-treated groups. According to the packaging methods, the L* values were higher in the vacuum, N2 gas and passive package, in that order. In addition, the browning degree and the delta E value were lower in the pretreated groups and significantly lowest in the vacuum-treated OPP/AL/PE with 0.1% vitamin C group. The phenolic compounds were high for the pretreated groups, according to the packaging methods (vacuum > N2 gas> passive), and the OPP/AL/PE was significantly higher than the PE. These results suggest that different packaging materials and pretreatment methods affected the quality of the dried peaches, and the vacuum- OPP/AL/PE film packaging group showed a high quality.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of the pretreatment and infrared drying methods on the physicochemical properties and antioxidant activities of dried peaches. The pretreatment methods were the 30 min treatment of NaCl, vitamin C, and soluble Ca (1:5 w/v immersion ratio), and leaving them untreated before infrared drying at 55℃ for 20 hr. The moisture content was lower in the pre-treated group and was significantly lowest in the 0.3% NaCl. The titratable acidity and soluble solid content and acid ratio (SS/TA) were high for the vitamin C and soluble Ca groups. The browning degree and cutting strength of the dried peach were lower in the pre-treated group. The total sugar content in the 0.3% NaCl group was significantly higher than those in the vitamin C and soluble Ca groups. The Ca contents were more effective in the soluble Ca treated group and increased with higher Ca concentration. The sensory evaluation results indicated that the organoleptic scores for the overall preference were higher in the 0.1% vitamin C treated group. The phenolic compounds and ABTS radical scavenging ability were high for the 0.1% vitamin C and 0.1% soluble Ca treated groups. These results suggest that pretreatment affected the qualities of the dried peaches, showing that infrared drying can be applied to the production of high quality dried peach products.

Using single cell gel electrophoresis, DNA single strand breaks were determined in various marine organisms. DNA damage on fish blood cells was detected to know whether there was a difference between Incheon, Pohang, Masan, and Tongyeong as a control site. Tongyeong showed the lowest DNA damage among the study areas. Mussels, transplanted to Masan Bay for one month, revealed high DNA damage at sites with high economical activity. In two weeks exposure of polychaete to Incheon sediments, higher DNA damage was detected in the sediment adjacent to Incheon harbor than open sea. These results suggested that the marine organism from the polluted area revealed a relatively high DNA damage. In addition, these areas might be contaminated with genotoxic compounds and comet assay was useful as a bioassay to detect DNA damage in marine organisms.