3.6.6. Ascorbic Acid Determination

10 g of the homogenized strawberry puree was suspended in a 50 mL volumetric flask with 10 mL of 1% HCl and distilled water. The sample was then extracted at 1200 rad/min and centrifuged for 10 min. The clean supernatant was collected and 1 mL put in each of two 50 mL volumetric flasks: (A) containing 2 mL of 10% HCl and (B) containing 4 mL of 1 mol/L NaOH, both with distilled water. Absorption photometry of the sample was conducted against a control at 243.3 nm using an absorption spectrophotometer (MAPADA, Instruments. Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China). The levels of ascorbic acid were estimated from a standard curve prepared from pure ascorbic acid readings.

#### 3.6.7. Preliminary Sensory Evaluation

Strawberries from each set of treatment conditions were served to panelists in a random order. The evaluations were performed under ambient conditions at about 18 ± 2 ◦C and 60% ± 5% RH in a sensory evaluation room. The quality attributes (appearance, color, odor, flavor, texture, and overall acceptability) of the strawberries were evaluated by 14 trained assessors, using a nine-point hedonic scale where 9 indicates excellence and freshness; 7 is very good; 5 is good but indicates the limit of marketability; 3 is fair, indicating the limit of usability; and 1 means poor or unusable. Panelists used water to cleanse their mouths between samples [44].

### *3.7. Statistical Analysis*

Multiple samples were tested, and the results were reported as the mean ± the standard deviation. The values were submitted to analysis of variance and the means were separated by Duncan's Multiple Range Test (SuperANOVA, Abacus Concepts, Inc., Berkeley, CA, USA). A *p* value of < 0.05 was considered significant.
