DINVESTIGATION OF CONTACT HEATING OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES WITH SATURATED WATER STEAM

The purpose of this research was to study the modes of  heating different types of plant raw materials in model technological environments that imitate the blanching of raw materials under factory conditions. The research aimed at expanding the range of canned products made from fruit and vegetables. To this end, new methods were searched for, in addition to the existing ones, allowing heating various plant raw materials and increasing the energy efficiency of canned fruit and vegetables production. Saturated water steam was selected as the treatment medium. The experimental studies included determining the volume-average  temperature of the fruit layer in the container. A pulse method of supplying the heating media has also been investigated. It allows using the inertial properties of raw materials and significantly reducing the expenditure of the heating media.  The objects selected for study were various species of pomes and drupes, in particular, apples, plums, cherries, sweet cherries, as well as a vegetable crop of the gourd family, or Cucurbitaceae. The following characteristics have been studied: the dynamics of heating individual fruit and vegetables in the saturated water steam environment at atmospheric pressure; the dependence of the heating and cooling rates of individual fruit and vegetables on the geometric index; the dependence of the heating rate of individual fruit and vegetables on the value of the characteristic dimension; the dependences of changes in the volume-average temperature of the fruit layer on the duration of treatment with saturated water steam. It has been established that the volume-average temperature in the centre of a fruit is also influenced by the shape of the fruit itself. To characterise the anomalous shapes of plant raw materials, the geometric index G has been calculated. This index characterises the elliptical shape of a fruit, and allows determining parameters in two mutually perpendicular planes. Also, to compare fruit of the elliptical and the spherical shapes, a special concept of characteristic dimension was used, which is applicable to fruit of different shapes. The experimental data on the change in the dependences of the heating and cooling rates of individual elliptical fruit have been analysed. The analysis has shown that the size of a fruit significantly affects the volume-average temperature in the fruit layer. It has been suggested to use pulsed heating of the fruit layer with saturated  water steam, which will appreciably increase the energy efficiency of production due to a significant reduction in heating media consumption