Impact of Cooking Time, Packaging System, and Freezing Rate on the Physicochemical and Sensory Quality of Frozen Brazilian Pine Seeds ( Araucaria angustifolia )

Ready‐to‐consume Brazilian pine seeds (pinhão, Araucaria angustifolia ) are gaining commercial interest, but the combined influence of cooking, packaging and freezing on product quality during long‐term frozen storage has not been quantified. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (cooking time, 30 or 45 min; packaging, heat sealing or vacuum; freezing method, slow or rapid) was evaluated after 30, 95, 220 and 365 days at −18°C, with fresh‐frozen seeds cooked at consumption used as controls, totaling 96 factorial and 24 control observations. Type III factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed separately at each storage evaluation time, with significant interactions decomposed by simple‐effects analyses followed by Tukey HSD, and η p ² reported as effect size. The factors that governed each response changed during storage. Cooking time dominated moisture content at 30 days ( F = 38.21, p < 0.001, η p ² = 0.705) and also affected redness a∗ at 30 days ( F = 6.92, p = 0.018, η p ² = 0.302) and at 365 days ( F = 7.88, p = 0.013, η p ² = 0.330), where it interacted with the freezing method ( F = 15.44, p = 0.001, η p ² = 0.491). The freezing method controlled the mechanical response at 30 days, slowly frozen seeds being harder than rapidly frozen ones ( F = 11.90, p = 0.003, η p ² = 0.427), and governed yellowness b∗ at 365 days ( F = 16.75, p < 0.001, η p ² = 0.511). Water activity remained between 0.981 and 0.993 throughout the year, a variation without technological relevance, and fracturability showed no significant effect at any storage time. Principal component analysis separated the optical from the mechanical responses along the first component and described a coherent temporal trajectory of the product. All samples complied with microbiological standards. Free choice profiling discriminated samples at every storage time, and the controls together with the treatment cooked for 30 min, vacuum‐packed and slow‐frozen retained the characteristic pine‐seed flavor, aroma, hardness and color, whereas the quality index did not follow a monotonic decay and was not suitable for shelf‐life estimation.