Effect of pre-treatments on solar drying kinetics of red seedless grapes (cv. Monukka)

Two different pre-treatments were applied to grapes prior to drying in a mixed mode solar dryer. Grapes were blanched in water and in a 0.1% sun ower oil water emulsion, both at 99°C and for approximately 15 seconds. Several models were tested to fit the experimental data of drying curves but the normalized Newton model gave the best fit results. Samples blanched in hot water or in the 0.1% edible oil emulsion had faster drying rates than untreated samples. Contrary to what was expected, pre-treating with the 0.1% edible oil emulsion did not increase the drying rate to a higher extent than blanching. Pre-treatments did not give a noteworthy difference in the total drying time. However, they had an important role in accelerating initial drying rates, thus preventing moulds and bacterial growth and consequently increasing farmers' income.