Study of the stability of cashew nuts obtained from conventional and organic cultivation

Resumo

From the cashew tree, the cashew fruit is obtained which is composed of the nut and the cashew apple. In the last decade, there has been a substitution of the conventional system of food production for the organic cultivation system. Given the above, this research aimed to study the stability of cashew nuts obtained from conventional and organic cultivation. There were differences in the content of total soluble sugars and soluble solids between the two methods of cultivation studied, where the highest values were observed in nuts from conventional cultivation. As for the content of phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity by ABTS•+ and DPPH• radicals, the mean values observed were 65 mg GAE/100 g, 6.6 ?M Trolox/g and 30682 g of nut/g DPPH•. There was no reduction of the antioxidant activity of the cashew nuts during the storage in flexible packaging covered with laminated film, at room temperature (25 °C) during 180 days.