Modelling and optimization of osmotic dehidration combined with other methods for drying fruits

Abstract

The general objective of this Ph.D. programme was to study and to optimize the development, in terms of process efficiencyand the product quality,of fruit-based dry products with intermediate water content through osmotic dehydration,or reduced water content by subsequent combination of this technique with other drying methods.The first part of the work focused on the osmotic dehydration (OD) of apple cubes and physalis. The adequacyof thefit of some mathematical models to describethe mass transfer kinetics inthe products was also studied.The objectives were to perform the OD of apple cubes and to study the effects of the solute (sucrose orsorbitol) and the concentration (40 and 60 °Bx) in the osmotic solution, the mass ratio ofsample to solution (1:4 or1:10), the temperature (25, 40 and 60 ºC), and the pressure (1 bar and 150 mbar) on the water loss (WL) and the solid gain (SG).Regarding physalis, the OD was performed with a mass ratio of sample to solution of 1:4 at 60 °C and the pressure was1 bar or150 mbar. Another objective was to evaluate the changes in the microstructure of the apple tissue after the osmotic treatment with sucrose orsorbitol. Thus, in the apple cubes, the sorbitol, the increase of the temperature and of the soluteconcentration in the osmotic solution resulted in an increase ofthe ODrate, but the mass ratio of the sample to the solution and the pressure did not affect the process. In the physalis, the initial WLrate increased when the vacuum was applied during the OD with sucrose and tended to increase with the use of sorbitol. At the end of the DO of apple cubes, it was observed,by microstructure analysis,that this process affected the size and shape parameters of plant cells and the changes were more pronounced in samples osmotically dehydrated with sorbitol. The OD process caused the shrinkage of the cells and,consequently,a reduction of volume, the plasmolysis and the folding of the cell walls.In the second part of the work, some drying methods were studied to obtain cut apple with reduced water content, namely hot air drying, microwave drying and freeze-drying.The effect of the osmotic pre-treatment with sucrose orsorbitol solutionswas also studied. For the best conditions of each method, the drying kinetics were compared amongthe different methods and the quality —water activity(aw), the colour, the total phenolic content(TPC), the antioxidant activity(AA)and the rehydration ability —of the dried apple cubes were evaluated.Theadequacyof thefit of some mathematical models to describe the water content during drying was also evaluated. Thus, the effect of the temperature (25, 55, 70 and 80 ºC) was studied on the hot air drying of osmotically dehydrated apple cubes (60 ºC, 60 ºBx sucrose orsorbitol solutions, mass ratio of sample to solution 1:4).In the microwave
vidrying,the effect of the osmotic pre-treatment andthepower (160, 350, 500, 650, 750 and 850 W) on the WLkinetics of apple cubes was also evaluated. Finally, the WLkinetics of the freeze-drying of apple cubes were studied. Concerning thedried cut apple with reduced water content, the osmotic dehydration as pre-treatment before the hot air drying increased the drying rate and reduced the drying time. The osmotic agent did not affect the drying rate, but the use of sorbitol reduced more the drying time and the awof the final product.In the microwave drying, the increase of the power level reduced the drying time and this reduction was higherfor samples osmotically dehydrated with sorbitol. OD prior to freeze-drying did not present a relevant advantage and the awwas lower in non-treated samples. The type of drying and the pre-treatment did not affect the rehydration rate of the dried apple cubes, but the control samples presentedhigher equilibrium water content than the osmotically dehydrated ones.The OD and subsequent drying by hot air, microwave and freeze-drying, significantly decreased the TPC and the AA. These quality parameters of the osmotically dehydrated samples were not affected by the subsequent drying, but only by the OD.In order to compare the effect of the osmotic agent used in the OD on the consumer’sacceptance, the sensory analysis of hot air dried apple cubes pre-treated osmotically with sucrose orsorbitol was carried out. There was no difference in theresults and the final product was well accepted by consumers.Among the drying methods studied, microwave drying without osmotic pre-treatment produced dried apple cubes with good quality and in a short time. Sorbitol is a good alternative to sucrose as theagent in the osmotic pre-treatment of apple cubes and physalis. Furthermore, sorbitol isa prebioticwith health benefits.

Date of Award	15 Sept 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Alcina M. M. Bernardo Morais (Supervisor) & Rui M. S. C. Morais (Co-Supervisor)