STUDY THE EFFECT OF SUN AND MICROWAVE DRYING ON QUALITY OF CAMEL MEAT (Camelus dromedarius) SLICES

Drying is still considered to be an efficient and important process used for food preservation. Several drying methods are commonly used, so it would be interesting to compare them. The comparison could focus on the quality of the dried products, which is mainly dependent on changes occurring during processing. In the current contribution, an experimental study of drying camel meat (Camelus dromedarius) by two methods, namely direct sun drying and microwave drying, is performed. The investigation is carried out to determine the adequate better drying technique for camel meat from the region of Ouargla, southeast Algeria. Under pre-treatment in a saline solution during 30 minutes of soaking, the samples used are slices 8 mm thick, 100 mm long and 20 mm wide. They are characterized by the initial water content of 73.38 ± 0.13%, the protein content of 19.77 ± 0.05%, an ash content of 1.123 ± 0.009 and a lipid content of 3.72 ± 0.05%. The sun drying experiments are carried out at an average temperature of 21.55°C and average relative humidity of 28.57%. The microwave drying is carried out at a power of 180 and 270 W. At the end of drying, kinetics, rate drying, duration drying, organoleptic properties (color and size) and nutritional values (protein and lipid) are determined in each case. Although drying in the microwave is faster and shorter, the results show that the samples sun dried are better. Indeed, sun drying shows a shrinkage rate of 43.63 ± 0.37% against 56.75 ± 0.36% at 180 W and 57.65 ± 0.32% at 270 W for microwave drying, with total color differences of 20.59 ± 0.48 against 24.63 ± 0.73 at 180 W and 23.10 ± 0.70 at 270 W for microwave drying. Protein content increases significantly after sun drying (49.44 ± 0.21) and microwave drying (45.30 ± 0.02% at 180 W and 40.64 ± 0.01 at 270 W). The results also show lipid preservation of 84.13% during sun drying and an increase in ash content in both drying processes from 1.123 ± 0.009 to: (i) 4.235 ± 0.015 at 180 W and 4.266 ± 0.037 at 280 W, in microwave drying; (ii) 3.903 ± 0.07 during sun drying