Evaluation of pervaporation process of kiwifruit juice by SPME-GC/Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry

The processing of kiwifruit for obtaining products with a higher sensory quality, to be used in the food industry, is associated with the use of techniques which can limit the physical and chemical losses of aroma compounds. Pervaporation (PV) represents an alternative to the techniques based on distillation/evaporation or partial condensation to concentrate the aroma compounds preserving the molecule integrity (mild operational conditions used), having a high selectivity towards the organic volatile compounds, and respecting also the environment. The most representative volatile compounds of the kiwifruit aroma was chosen for evaluating the pervaporation process. SPME‐GC/ion trap mass spectrometry method was exploited to determine the amounts of these compounds. The approach was based on chemical ionization acquisition with isobutane as reagent gas and 1‐heptanol and (Z)‐3‐hexen‐yl acetate as internal standards. In these conditions, the calibration curves were satisfactory as demonstrated by the R2 values of the straight lines (0.9937–0.9999). A kiwifruit fresh juice was processed by pervaporation through the composite commercial membrane (GFT1070) and the one self‐prepared, made of styrene butadiene co‐styrene (SBS), at three different feed temperatures. Marked effects for both membranes were observed in the total and partial fluxes of aroma compounds as the temperature was increased. The studied aroma compounds were differently affected by the temperature changes during PV process, with the result of a change in concentration in the permeate of the aroma compounds recovered.