Applications of potassium sorbate(2)

(1) Applications in vegetables and fruits

Fresh vegetables and fruits without timely preservative treatment will soon lose their lustre, moisture, dry and wrinkled surfaces and are susceptible to mould decay, resulting in unnecessary waste. If potassium sorbate is applied to the surface of vegetables and fruit, it can be preserved for up to a month at temperatures of up to 30°C, while maintaining the green colour of the vegetables and fruit. Apples that have been sprayed with potassium sorbate can be stored at room temperature for up to four months, with only around 5% of the apples spoiling. Potassium sorbate can even prevent the oxidation and rusting of tinplate on the outside of canned vegetables.

(2) Application in meat products

Smoked ham, dried sausages, jerky and similar other dried meat products are preserved by briefly soaking them in an appropriate concentration of potassium sorbate solution. Meat sausage products such as beef sausages and pork sausages can be preserved by adding an appropriate amount of potassium sorbate directly to the meat during the chopping process and then spraying a 5% solution of potassium sorbate on the surface after the finished product. It is also possible to add an appropriate amount of potassium sorbate directly to the general meat and meat fillings for preservative preservation. Raw and cooked chicken can be soaked in different formulations and concentrations of potassium sorbate solution to improve freshness and extend shelf life. Raw poultry whose surfaces were sprayed with potassium sorbate preservation solution significantly prolonged spoilage relative to similar foods that had not been sprayed with the preservation solution, retaining freshness twice as long as the comparison samples.

(3) Application in aquatic products

After adding 0.1%~0.2% of preservative mixture of sorbic acid and potassium sorbate to fish sausage, the product did not spoil after two weeks of storage at temperatures up to 30℃, while the control sample under the same environmental conditions would spoil after one week of storage. When the temperature was maintained at 10-15°C and the internal pH of the fish sausages was controlled at less than 6, the sausages could be stored for seven weeks without spoilage. In general fish cake products with a pH between 6.8 and 7.2 can be preserved using potassium sorbate or its mixture with sorbic acid. However, when using the mixture, the proportion of sorbic acid must be controlled, because sorbic acid is an acidic preservative and the elasticity of fish cake products will be affected when they are in low pH conditions. So in order to solve this contradiction reasonably, the content of sorbic acid in the mixture must be reduced. 

Dried fish products are relatively dry, and in general products with a moisture content of less than 30% do not produce bacterial spoilage, but are susceptible to mould. If the right amount of potassium sorbate is added to dried fish products, this mould can be effectively prevented. Smoked fish products can be preserved by spraying a 5% to 10% concentration of potassium sorbate solution before, during or after the smoking process. Fish and shrimps cooked in soy sauce can be stored at a temperature of 10-15°C for two months without spoiling after adding the right amount of potassium sorbate. Thoroughly cleaned fresh fish, shrimp or other raw aquatic products, immersed in the appropriate concentration of potassium sorbate preservation solution for 20 seconds and then removed, remove the preservation solution and refrigerate, can effectively extend its shelf life.