DRYING CHARACTERISTICS OF OSMOTICALLY DEHYDRATED FRUITS COATED WITH SEMIPERMEABLE EDIBLE FILMS

This paper deals with key issues of the coating technology applied to plant materials prior to osmotic dehydration and convective drying. Coatings created with solutions of starch products and pectin were examined. It was shown that coating of foods to be dehydrated influences mass transfer in a plant tissue during osmotic pre-treatment as well as during convective drying. Each coating should be individually examined. The properties of coatings depend on their composition and the method used for the fabrication of a coating. Coating of foods with an artificial barrier on the surface may efficiently hinder the penetration of solute inside the food, not affecting much the rate of water removal. The coated plant materials had a greater water loss/solids gain ratio then the uncoated ones. Osmotic dehydration seems to be one of possible pre-treatment methods before drying. The conditions of convective drying are changed upon osmotic dehydration of plant materials. It was shown that changes in drying rate depend on the kind of coating substance. Bigger differences were observed at higher water content and these differences narrowed as water content in dried material decreased. The positive effect of coatings on the physical properties of dried fruits was found.     

DRYING CHARACTERISTICS OF OSMOTICALLY DEHYDRATED FRUITS COATED WITH SEMIPERMEABLE EDIBLE FILMS

This paper deals with key issues of the coating technology applied to plant materials prior to osmotic dehydration and convective drying. Coatings created with solutions of starch products and pectin were examined. It was shown that coating of foods to be dehydrated influences mass transfer in a plant tissue during osmotic pre-treatment as well as during convective drying. Each coating should be individually examined. The properties of coatings depend on their composition and the method used for the fabrication of a coating. Coating of foods with an artificial barrier on the surface may efficiently hinder the penetration of solute inside the food, not affecting much the rate of water removal. The coated plant materials had a greater water loss/solids gain ratio then the uncoated ones. Osmotic dehydration seems to be one of possible pre-treatment methods before drying. The conditions of convective drying are changed upon osmotic dehydration of plant materials. It was shown that changes in drying rate depend on the kind of coating substance. Bigger differences were observed at higher water content and these differences narrowed as water content in dried material decreased. The positive effect of coatings on the physical properties of dried fruits was found.     

EFFECT OF OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION ON VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF APPLE AND BANANA

The rheological behavior of osmotically dehydrated apple and banana was examined under uniaxial compression and relaxation tests of cylindrical specimens. Compression and relaxation tests were performed, following air drying of osmotically pre-treated samples, at various moisture contents ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 kg/kg dry basis. The maximum stress and the corresponding strain were correlated to the moisture content using simple mathematical equations. It was shown that both parameters increase as water was removed and their values are significantly higher than the corresponding values for untreated air dried samples. The effect of moisture content on compressive behavior of osmotically dried materials was introduced through its effect on the four model parameters: the maximum stress (σ_max) the maximum strain (ε_max), the elastic parameter (E) and the viscoelastic exponent (p). The stress relaxation data of osmotically treated samples were modeled using a two-term Maxwell model. It was shown that osmotic pre-treatment increased the remaining force and it decreased the relaxation time of dehydrated samples. The osmotic dehydration and therefore the sugar gain tend to increase the viscous nature of fruits and decrease their elasticity for both materials, causing plasticity of the structure.     

Influence of Osmotic Pretreatment on Kinetics of Convective Drying and Quality of Apples

This article examines the influence of apple osmotic dehydration (OD) on the kinetics of convective drying and the quality of the products obtained. Fresh apples (Malus domestica), variety Ligol, were used as the experimental material. Samples were first dehydrated in three osmotic agents (glucose, fructose, and sucrose), each at a concentration of 40%, for 30, 60, and 120 min, and then dried convectively. Efficiency of osmotic dewatering was assessed on the basis of water loss (WL) and solids gain (SG). The influence of OD on convective drying kinetics was analyzed by comparing the drying curves and the basic kinetic parameters (time and drying rate). Quality of products was assessed on the basis of colorimetric measurements and sensory evaluation. It was found that OD significantly improved the quality of dried products through better retention of the original color, shape, texture, aroma, and taste, but it did not remarkably affect the rate of convective drying.     

The Effect of Enzymatic Treatment on Dried Vegetable Color

The usefulness of enzymatic treatment for improving dried vegetable color was checked using carrot and pumpkin as experimental material. The color differences were expressed using the L*, a*, b* chroma and hue values. For selected samples, color attractiveness was also assessed by ranking method. The results show positive influence of enzymatic treatment on dried carrot and pumpkin color retention. The best effects of improving color of dried material were obtained for Panzym SMASH XXL (for both species) and Rohament CL (for pumpkin). The positive influence of enzymatic treatment on attractiveness of dried carrot color enlarged during storage.     

The Effect of Enzymatic Treatment on Dried Vegetable Color

The usefulness of enzymatic treatment for improving dried vegetable color was checked using carrot and pumpkin as experimental material. The color differences were expressed using the L*, a*, b* chroma and hue values. For selected samples, color attractiveness was also assessed by ranking method. The results show positive influence of enzymatic treatment on dried carrot and pumpkin color retention. The best effects of improving color of dried material were obtained for Panzym SMASH XXL (for both species) and Rohament CL (for pumpkin). The positive influence of enzymatic treatment on attractiveness of dried carrot color enlarged during storage.     

Ultrasonic-Assisted Osmotic Dehydration of Carrot Followed by Convective Drying with Continuous and Intermittent Heating

The aim of the studies was to analyze the effect of ultrasound action on osmotic pretreatment and then on drying kinetics in continuous and intermittent drying conditions, and on the final product quality. This article presents the results of intermittent-convective drying of carrot preceded by ultrasonic assisted osmotic dehydration in fructose aqueous solutions. The theoretical drying kinetics developed from the numerical solution of mathematical model is validated using the experimental data. It has been shown that combination of ultrasonic assisted osmosis with intermittent-convective drying accelerates the drying process and improves the quality of dried biomaterial. A good adherence of the numerically determined kinetic curves confirms the usefulness of the presented model and its possible application to construction of controlled and optimized drying processes.     

EFFECT OF DRYING METHOD ON SHRINKAGE AND POROSITY

The effect of drying method on bulk density, particle density, specific volume and porosity of banana, apple, carrot and potato at various moisture contents was investigated, using a large set of experimental measurements. Samples were dehydrated with five different drying methods: conventional, vacuum, microwave, freeze and osmotic drying. A simple mathematical model was used In order to correlate the above properties with the material moisture content. Four parameters with physical meaning were incorporated in the model: the enclosed water density p_w, the dry solid density p_s, the dry solid bulk density p_bo and the volume shrinkage coefficient β'. The effect of drying method on the examined properties was taken into account through its effect on the corresponding parameters. Only, dry solid bulk density was dependent on both material and drying method. Freeze dried materials developed the highest porosity, whereas the lowest one was obtained using conventional air drying.     

Quality Evaluation of Microwave-Dried Packham's Triumph Pear

Abstract

The objectives of this work were to carry out the microwave and microwave-convective drying of pear, in order to preserve the quality by reducing the drying time of the fruit; to compare the kinetic with convective drying mode data and to fit the comparative data to models from literature. The effect of osmotic dehydration and the variation in the microwave power were analyzed at constant values of air temperature and velocity. The experimental data fit well the proposed kinetic model. The processed pear was evaluated with respect to water content, quantity of calcium, phosphorus and potassium, water activity and apparent density. The best results were found for the samples osmotically dehydrated and dried in the microwave-convective dryer. The osmotic dehydration and the short drying times were important to maintain sample characteristics.     

COMBINED OSMOTIC AND MICROWAVE DRYING OF STRAWBERRIES

Strawberries pretreated with 2% ethyl oleate and 0.5% NaOH were osmotically dehydrated and their osmotic dehydration rate is compared with untreated berries. It was found that treated berries dehydrated belter compared to untreated berries. Osmotically dehydrated berries were convective and microwave dried at different power levels and results were compared with respect to drying time and rate. The rehydration ratio, texture, color and sensory values are compared with freeze dried strawberries with the same pretreatment. It was found that microwave drying was short in time and the quality parameters of the microwave dried berries were comparable to those of freeze dried berries.     

EFFECT OF OSMOTIC AGENT ON OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF FRUITS

Mass transfer phenomena were investigated during osmotic dehydration of apple, banana and kiwi in glucose and sucrose osmotic solution. A complete set of experiments was performed for a wide range of temperature, sample size, speed of agitation, osmotic agent concentration and immersion time. An empirical model, based on a first order kinetic equation, was fitted satisfactorily to experimental data. Furthermore, the effect of solute molecular weight on mass transfer phenomena during the osmotic treatment was evaluated. The results showed that low molecular weight solute (glucose) leads to higher water loss and solids uptake than high molecular weight solute (sucrose), of osmodehydrated fruits under the same solution concentration.     

Simulation of Osmotic Dehydration of a Spherical Material Using Parabolic and Power-Law Approximation Methods

In this article, one-dimensional transient moisture and solute diffusions in the spherical geometry during osmotic dehydration were modeled by exact analytical method and two approximate models. Approximate models have been developed based on a parabolic and power-law profile approximation for moisture and solute concentrations in the spatial direction. The proposed models were validated by experimental water loss and solid gain data obtained from osmotic dehydration of spherical cherry tomatoes in NaCl salt solution. Experiments were conducted at six combinations of two temperatures (30°C and 40°C) and three solution concentrations (10%, 18%, and 25% w/w). A two-parameter model was used to predict moisture loss and solute gain at equilibrium condition, and moisture and solute diffusivities were estimated by fitting the experimental moisture loss and solute gain data to the Fick's second law of diffusion. The values of mean relative errors for exact analytical, parabolic, and power-law approximation methods respect to the experimental data were estimated between 6.58% and 9.20%, 13.28% and 16.57%, and 5.39% and 7.60%, respectively. Although the parabolic approximation leads to simpler relations, the power-law approximation method results in higher accuracy of average concentrations over the whole domain of dehydration time.     

Osmotic Dehydration of Mango Cubes: Effect of Novel Gluten-Based Coating

Edible coating before osmotic dehydration (OD) reduces solute uptake, which can deteriorate product quality. Polysaccharide-based coatings have been reported for this purpose with limited success. Gluten, due to its inherent film formation property, has the potential to be used for this purpose. In this study, mango cubes of different maturity were osmotically dehydrated with and without gluten-based coating. An edible coating was prepared through fractionation of gluten. Osmotic dehydration was performed at 50°C for 2 h with osmotic solutions (OSs) at various concentrations (45, 55, 65 °Brix). Coating improved the dehydration efficiency index (DEI) due to a substantial decrease in solute gain (SG) and slight increase in water loss (WL). The coating modified the physicochemical properties and this effect was significantly observed at 55 °Brix. Coated mango cubes were harder and shrank more than uncoated mango. The physicochemical properties after OD were also found to be influenced by the maturity of raw mangoes.     

EFFECT OF OSMOTIC AGENT ON OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF FRUITS

ABSTRACT

Mass transfer phenomena were investigated during osmotic dehydration of apple, banana and kiwi in glucose and sucrose osmotic solution. A complete set of experiments was performed for a wide range of temperature, sample size, speed of agitation, osmotic agent concentration and immersion time. An empirical model, based on a first order kinetic equation, was fitted satisfactorily to experimental data. Furthermore, the effect of solute molecular weight on mass transfer phenomena during the osmotic treatment was evaluated. The results showed that low molecular weight solute (glucose) leads to higher water loss and solids uptake than high molecular weight solute (sucrose), of osmodehydrated fruits under the same solution concentration.     

COMBINED OSMOTIC AND MICROWAVE DRYING OF STRAWBERRIES

ABSTRACT

Strawberries pretreated with 2% ethyl oleate and 0.5% NaOH were osmotically dehydrated and their osmotic dehydration rate is compared with untreated berries. It was found that treated berries dehydrated belter compared to untreated berries. Osmotically dehydrated berries were convective and microwave dried at different power levels and results were compared with respect to drying time and rate. The rehydration ratio, texture, color and sensory values are compared with freeze dried strawberries with the same pretreatment. It was found that microwave drying was short in time and the quality parameters of the microwave dried berries were comparable to those of freeze dried berries.     

Influence of Chemical Composition and Structure on Sorption Properties of Freeze-Dried Pumpkin

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of chemical composition and material structure on sorption properties of freeze-dried pumpkin. The chemical composition and material structure were changed by osmotic dehydration, blanching, freezing, and temperature of the freeze-drying process. Freeze-dried pumpkin obtained from nonpretreated pumpkin had the best sorption properties, whereas osmotic dehydration significantly decreased the water vapor adsorption ability of the investigated samples. Studies on the influence of different freezing methods on water vapor sorption showed that a combination method of freezing resulted in the best sorption properties. When the temperature of freeze drying was increased, the water vapor adsorption ability of the freeze-dried pumpkin also increased.     

Mathematical modeling of moisture and solute diffusion in the cylindrical green bean during osmotic dehydration in salt solution

In this study, mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of cylindrical cut green beans in salt solution was investigated. The osmotic solution concentrations used were 10%, 20% and 26.5% (w/w) NaCl, osmotic solution temperatures used were 30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C, the solution-to-green bean mass ratio was more than 20:1 (w/w) and the process duration varied from 0 to 6 hr. A two-parameter mathematical model developed by Azuara et al. (1992) was used for describing the mass transfer in osmotic dehydration of green bean samples and estimation of the final equilibrium moisture loss and solid gain. Effective radial diffusivity of moisture as well as solute was estimated using the analytical solution of Fick's second law of diffusion in the cylindrical coordinates. For above conditions of osmotic dehydration, moisture and salt effective diffusivities were found to be in the range of 1.776 × 10⁻¹⁰-2.707 × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s and 1.126 × 10⁻¹⁰-1.667 × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s, respectively. Moisture and solute distributions as a function of time and location in the radial direction were plotted by using the estimated equilibrium moisture and solute concentrations and also moisture and solute diffusivities.     

OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF PINEAPPLE

The effects of sugar type, sugar concentration, immersion time and temperature on the mass transfer of osmotic dehydration were studied using pie shape slices (7 mm thick with its center cork thrown away) of fresh pineapple (Queen variety, 90% maturity). The dehydration process was performed using two type of sugar as an osmotic agent (glucose and sucrose), three levels of sugar concentration (50, 60, and 70%), three levels of temperature (30, 50, and 70 °C), and three levels of immersion time (3, 6, and 9 hours). Following the osmotic dehydration process, the pineapple was dried at 70 °C for 48 hours. The mass transfer was then calculated and analyzed statistically. Sugar type, concentration, temperature, and length of immersion, have a significant effect on the mass transfer of osmotically dehydrated pineapple. The highest mass transfer of pineapple was found by using sucrose at the concentration of 70%, temperature 50 °C and 9 hours of immersion time.     

Experimental study of the application of edible coatings in pumpkin sticks submitted to osmotic dehydration

Osmotic dehydration (OD) improves the organoleptic characteristics of products; nevertheless, depending on the product, the incorporation of great amounts of solute can be undesirable to consumers. The application of hydrogel coatings would overcome this, acting as a barrier to solute entering the product. An alginate–calcium chloride barrier system (A-CC) was tested with or without pretreatment of Ca²⁺ as a firmness agent applied to pumpkin sticks. Products were dehydrated in sucrose and glucose solutions (40 and 60% w/w). Different parameters were estimated such as soluble solids uptake, water content, and weight reduction; in addition, texture and microstructural changes were studied. The A-CC configuration complies with the barrier function to solids uptake from the dehydrating solution in case of 60% of sucrose, allowing water exit from the vegetal matrix. The pretreatment with Ca²⁺ contributed to the retention of product firmness. Integrity, adhesiveness, and thickness of the A-CC system during the OD process were evaluated by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). In this case, the coating thickness reduction was according to the product weight reduction, indicating that the coated product was dehydrated as an integrated system.     

Osmotic Dehydration of Apple Cylinders: III. Continuous Medium Flow Microwave Heating Conditions

Continuous flow osmotic drying permits a better exchange of moisture and solids between the food particle and osmotic solution than the batch process. Osmotic drying has been well studied by several researchers mostly in the batch mode. Microwave heating has been traditionally recognized to provide rapid heating conditions. Its role in the finish drying of food products has also been recognized. In this study, the effects of process temperature, solution concentration on moisture loss (ML), solids gain (SG), and mass transport coefficients (k_m and k_s) were evaluated and compared under microwave, assisted osmotic dehydration (MWOD) versus continuous flow osmotic dehydration (CFOD). Apple cylinders (2 cm diameter, 2 cm height) were subjected to continuous flow osmotic solution at different concentrations (30, 40, 50, and 60°Brix sucrose) and temperatures (40, 50, and 60°C). Similar treatments were also given with samples subjected to microwave heating. Results obtained showed that solids gain by the samples was always lower when carried out under microwave heating, while the moisture loss was increased. The greater moisture loss strongly counteracted solids gain in MWOD and thus the overall ratio of ML/SG was higher in MWOD than in CFOD.