Evaluation of the mechanical properties and diffusion coefficients of osmodehydrated melon cubes

The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of osmotic agents, their concentration and temperature, on the mass transfer kinetics and mechanical properties of osmodehydrated melon cubes. Samples were immersed in a hypertonic solution of sucrose or maltose up to 8 h under controlled temperature and agitation. Water loss, sugar gain and mechanical properties were analysed throughout the process. Mass transfer kinetics was modelled according to Peleg and Fick equations. Higher water loss, lower sugar uptake and stress at rupture values more similar to fresh fruit were observed in samples treated with maltose solutions. Peleg’s model showed the best adjustment to all the experimental data, however the k₁ and k₂ parameters did not show a clear trend with the solution concentration or temperature increase. The effective diffusivity obtained using Fick’s equation varied from 3.93 × 10^?9 to 6.45 × 10^?9m² s^?1 for water loss and from 7.57 × 10^?10 to 3.14 × 10^?9m² s^?1 for sugar gain.     

Optimisation of the pulsed vacuum osmotic dehydration of cladodes of fodder palm

Fodder palm, a great source of nutrients for human and animals, grows even in arid climates. Pulsed vacuum osmotic dehydration is an efficient process for obtaining semidehydrated food. It was used to slice cladodes of fodder palm. The independent variables used were temperature (30–50 °C), pulsed vacuum pressure (50–150 mbar) and NaCl concentration (5–15 g per 100 g solution). The response variables were water activity (a_w), moisture content (X), colour parameters, water loss (WL), solid gain (SG) and weight reduction (WR). The pulsed vacuum osmotic dehydration process was optimised for minimum values of a_w, X and SG, and maximum values of chroma. The experimental data obtained with the optimum condition (100 mbar; 10 gNaCl per 100 g solution, 44 °C) were near the estimated ones. For example, WL, a_w and ?E, and their error were 8.15 g per 100 g, 11%; 0.985, 0.3% and 6.15, 15.2%, respectively.     

真空、脉冲真空、超声波对芒果渗透脱水的影响

为研究真空、脉冲真空和超声波对芒果渗透脱水动力学的影响,将大小为26mm×26mm×5mm的块状样品浸于65°Brix果葡糖浆溶液中,渗透脱水处理180min。结果表明,菲克扩散模型能很好地描述渗透脱水过程中芒果失水率和固增率的变化规律;真空、脉冲真空和超声波均促进了水分和固形物的扩散,其中超声波作用使水分扩散系数具有最大值,而真空处理导致了固形物扩散系数最高。     

Optimization of osmotic dehydration of melons followed by air-drying

Osmotic dehydration represents a technological alternative to reduce post‐harvest losses of fruits. In this work, the influence of the osmotic solution concentration and osmotic solution to fruit weight ratio was examined on the osmotic dehydration of melons under vacuum. The process of osmotic dehydration followed by air‐drying was studied and modelled so that it could be optimised. The developed model has been validated with experimental data and simulations have shown that how the operating conditions affect the process. An optimisation was done using the model in order to search for the best operating condition that would reduce the total processing time.     

Optimisation of osmotic dehydration process of guavas by response surface methodology and desirability function

Response surface methodology was used to assess the effects of osmotic solution concentration (40–60°Brix), process temperature (20–40 °C) and vacuum pulse application time (0–20 min) at 100 mbar on water loss (WL), weight reduction (WR), solid gain (SG), water activity (a_w), colour parameters and mechanical properties of guava slices. Optimal process conditions were determined through the desirability function approach and quality characteristics of osmotically dehydrated guavas were analysed. Only models obtained for WL, WR and a_w were suitable to describe the experimental data. The desirability function showed that optimal conditions for osmotic dehydration of guavas were: osmotic solution concentration at 60°Brix, process temperature at 32 °C and 20 min of vacuum pulse application. Under optimal conditions, colour and mechanical properties of treated guavas were similar to fresh fruit, presenting WL of 29.01 g/100 g, WR of 25.91 g/100 g, SG of 3.10 g/100 g and a_w of 0.979.     

Modelling of mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of apple tissue pre-treated by pulsed electric field

The osmotic dehydration mechanism of apple sample pre-treated by pulsed electric field (PEF) was investigated over a range of 44.5-65 ° Brix sucrose concentrations. Apple disks treated by PEF field of 0.90 kV/cm during a constant time were immersed in sucrose solution at ambient temperature with 3:1 syrup to apple ratio (w/w). Increase of the initial solute concentration and the PEF treatment resulted in acceleration of the osmotic dehydration (OD). The PEF-treated samples had a higher water loss (WL) and higher solid gain (SG) than the untreated samples. The osmotic dehydration kinetics was studied on the basis of two approaches: Fick's unsteady state diffusion equation and a two-exponential kinetic model. The coefficients of effective diffusion of water and solute were calculated. Their values were higher for samples pre-treated electrically. The effect of PEF was more pronounced for the WL comparatively to the SG. The two-exponential kinetic model permits evaluating of both convective and diffusion stages of OD. The PEF pre-treatment accelerates the kinetics of water and solute transfer during convective and diffusion stages of OD.     

Modeling mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of strawberries under high hydrostatic pressure conditions

Simultaneous application of high hydrostatic pressure (200–400 MPa) during osmotic dehydration of strawberries was studied in this investigation. The high hydrostatic pressure treatment improved the diffusion coefficients of water and soluble solids compared to atmospheric pressure operation. Effects of process pressure on diffusion coefficients were achieved through an Arrhenius-type equation. Mathematical modeling of mass transfer was performed applying Newton, Henderson–Pabis, Page and Weibull models. Based on statistical results, the Weibull model gave the best goodness of fit on the experimental data under the studies' operative conditions.Industrial relevance: This article deals with the mathematical modeling of mass transfer during simultaneous high hydrostatic pressure treatment and osmotic dehydration of strawberries. Transfer of water and soluble solids during this combined process were satisfactorily simulated with the Weibull model. Results indicated that application of this innovative technology improved strawberries dehydration rates compared to atmospheric pressure operation resulting in a dried fruit with intermediate moisture content ready to be used as input material of further processes.     

Mass transfer kinetics and mathematical modelling of the osmotic dehydration of orange‐fleshed honeydew melon in corn syrup and sucrose solutions

A simple mathematical model to predict dehydration and impregnation process during osmotic dehydration of orange‐fleshed honeydew in sucrose and corn syrup solutions was proposed. Results showed low dispersion and a good fitting capability for WL and SG kinetics. Diffusivity values for WL ranged from 0.96 × 10^?10 to 2.22 × 10^?10 and 1.04 × 10^?10 to 3.10 × 10^?10 m² s^?1 in corn syrup and sucrose solutions, respectively. For SG, the obtained range was 0.72 × 10^?10 to 2.35 × 10^?10 and 0.71 × 10^?10 to 2.46 × 10^?10 m² s^?1 in corn syrup and sucrose solutions, respectively. The half‐life of dehydration rates (t_1/2) was from 30.9 to 71.2 min and from 19.4 to 57.5 min in corn syrup and sucrose solutions, respectively. Diffusivities values obtained according to the proposed model were close to the ones observed from diffusive model; t_1/2 was a promising criterion for the process time definition.     

莴笋渗透脱水传质研究及参数优化

以失水率(WLR)和固形物增加率(SGR)为实验指标,采用二次回归正交旋转设计,选取葡萄糖溶液浓度(10%～40%)、氯化钠溶液浓度(2%～5%)、温度(35～65℃)、切片厚度(3～7mm)和渗透时间(60～150min)为影响因素,研究这5因素对莴笋渗透脱水指标的影响。使用SPSS软件拟合出了指标的回归方程,并利用方差分析研究了各因素对指标的影响程度。结果表明:除氯化钠溶液浓度外,其他4因素对失水率有极显著影响,而5种因素对固形物增加率有极显著作用。由Matlab软件优化的莴笋渗透脱水回归方程各参数为:葡萄糖浓度32.5%,氯化钠浓度2%,温度35℃,厚度5mm,渗透时间139min。     

Artificial neural network modeling of mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of kaffir lime peel

Mass transfer of kaffir lime peel during osmotic dehydration was investigated in this paper. Processing factors were solute concentrations, process temperatures, and immersion time. The results showed that increasing solute concentration and process temperature resulted in a higher reduction in moisture contents of kaffir lime peel and increase in water loss and solid gain rates. Analysis of variance showed significant effects (P < 0.05) of all processing factors except process temperatures for water loss. Multilayer feedforward neural network (MFNN) was proposed to predict percentages of water loss and solid gain of kaffir lime peel during osmotic dehydration based on three processing factors as inputs. The best network with the lowest average mean squared error (MSE) of 0.0066 and the highest average regression coefficient (r²) of 0.9725 from normalized training and validating data sets was composed of one hidden layer with five hidden neurons and used Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm as a training algorithm. A simulation test showed good generalization of the successfully trained MFNN model with the average MSE of 6.5813 and 5.9340, and average r² of 0.9745 and 0.9632, respectively, for water loss and solid gain. Compared with multiple linear regression models, MFNN was found to be more suitable for predicting water loss and solid gain during the OD process of kaffir lime peel.     

Mass transfer kinetics and regressional‐desirability optimisation during osmotic dehydration of pumpkin,kiwi and pear

Mass transfer kinetics and optimisation of osmotic dehydration (OD) of fruits and vegetables with diverse structures were studied. Different concentrations of sucrose (20–60 °Brix) and process times (0–24 h) were used. Magee’s model was appropriate for predicting water loss (WL), while Azuara’s model fitted well solids gain (SG) data and represented more accurately the evolution of the complete process close to equilibrium. Polynomial equations for each kinetic variable [WL, SG and weight reduction (WR) – for pumpkin, kiwi and pear] using multiple linear regression were fitted for a selected range of experimental data (30–240 min, 20–60 °Brix). A complete solution algorithm for desirability function was coded in Matlab^® 7.2 (Mathworks, Natick, MA, USA) with the aim to optimise osmotic dehydration process in terms of WL, SG and WR; optimal conditions were found for each fruit. Besides, an optimal common zone was identified for OD corresponding to process time from 114 to 240 min and sucrose concentration from 54 to 60 °Brix.     

Mass transfer evaluation of ultrasonic osmotic dehydration of cherry tomatoes in sucrose and salt solutions

In order to elaborate dehydration and osmotic equilibrium characteristics of cherry tomatoes and to analyse the applicability of Peleg model in prediction of equilibrium moisture content and the methodology of Crank’s solution to Fick’s diffusion law in calculation of effective diffusivity, cherry tomatoes were osmotically treated in ternary solution (water, sucrose and NaCl) with or without ultrasound at 30 °C. Results indicated that, a time cumulative effect of ultrasound occurred about 30 min for water loss (WL), while for sugar gain it happened after 45 min, which made the dehydration efficiency index best at the ultrasonic power of 150 W for 40 min. As a function of salt content, the equilibrium WL followed well the first order exponential decay model, and the equilibrium salt content followed well the second order polynomial. A great relative error (29.13%) between the practical determination and the predicted value indicated that Peleg model was not suitable for prediction of equilibrium moisture content. A great truncation error (865%) occurred when moisture effective diffusivity (6.66 × 10^?9 m² s^?1) was calculated with Crank’s solution to Fick’s diffusion law by letting n = 1 as compared to that (0.77 × 10^?9 m² s^?1) by letting n = 100.