Evaluation of quality attributes for Egyptian apricot and fig cultivars produced by osmodrying process

However, the reduction time of dehydration for both apricot and fig caused to obtain the higher percentage of solid gain (SG) and total solids (T.S) than that obtained by sundrying. Furthermore, the dehydration parameters (WL and WC) were strictly related to the type and concentration of the used osmosis solution. The phsico-chemical properties, microbiological assessment and quality attributes of both osmo-dried and sun-dried apricot and fig just after processing and during storage for 9 months were also undertaken. Results indicated that, osmo-dried apricot and fig pretreated with glucose syrup had the highest retention of ascorbic acid followed by sucrose, mixture of glucose- fructose (2:1) and fructose, respectively. Reducing sugar content were ranged between 55.47 to 55.77% and 53.97 to 54.70% for osmos-dried apricot and fig with various pretreatments just after processing. While, the corresponding values of fibers were ranged between 5.4o to 4.64% and 18.11 to 18.20%, respectively. The sun- dried apricot and fig had the highest total microbial contents (7.4x102 and 8.1x102cfu/g) followed by osmo-dried pretreated with fructose (2.4x 102 and 3.6x102 cfu/g), mixture of glucose - fructose (2:1) (2.3x102 and 2.9x102 cfu/g), sucrose (2.1x102 and 2.8x102 cfu/g) and glucose (1.9x102 and 2.4x102 cfu/g), respectively.. The osmo-dried apricot and fig ge pretreated with fructose syrup recorded the highest scores of color, texture, taste, flavor and overall acceptability followed by osmo-dried samples pretreated with syrups of glucose - fructose (2:1), glucose , sucrose and sundried just after processing and after 3,6 and 9 months of storage at ambient temperature. Therefore, pretreatment of apricot and fig with osmotic sugar solution to produce osmo-dried product play an important role for producing high quality dried apricot and fig than those produced by sun-drying process.