Author(s): Gabriel Kojo Frimpong, Isaac Delali Kottoh and Daniel Osei Ofosu
Low fruit and vegetable intake is estimated to cause about 31% of ischaemic heartdisease and 11% of stroke worldwide. It is estimated that up to 2.7 million lives couldpotentially be saved each year if fresh fruits and vegetables such as cabbageconsumption was sufficiently increased.The effect of ionizing radiation onphytochemical and sensory quality on minimally processed cabbage was studied for 15days. The aim was to investigate the effect of irradiation on phytochemical content aswell as sensory quality of cut cabbage sold in selected supermarkets in Accra, Ghana.Ascorbic acid, total antioxidant activity, total flavonoid and phenolic contents wereanalyzed for phytochemical analysis. Redox titration with iodine method was used indetermining the total ascorbic acid content while antioxidant activity, total flavonoid andphenolic content were determined by DPPH, Folin-Ciocalteu and Aluminium chloridecolorimetric method respectively. Nine-point Hedonic scale was also used for thesensory evaluation. Even though irradiation doses affected texture for that matterfirmness greatly, it showed no significant differences (p≤0.05) in phytochemical contentsuch as ascorbic acid, phenolics, flavonoids as well as antioxidant activity in theirradiated cut cabbage. Panelists' scores for colour, textue and aroma from sensoryevaluation showed significant differences (p<0.05) in irradiated cut cabbage samples.Itwas concluded that 2 kGy was most effective for medium dose decontamination ofminimally processed cabbage for shelf- life extension contrarily to claims of other workspegging it at 1 kGy.
