Influence of Blanching and Drying Air Temperature on Drying Kinetics of Banana Slices
2021
Kumar, R. | Pandey, O.P. | Dhiman, S.K. | Kumar, P.
PURPOSE: Drying of agro products, an alternative approach to truncate the post harvesting losses which is about 40% in case of banana as reported in literatures, is conducted for banana slices using tray dryer. The objective was to investigate the effect of blanching and drying temperature on drying kinetics of banana slices for which a comparative study of the drying kinetics of the banana slices under blanching and without blanching conditions was conducted. METHODS: The samples were made circular in shape with average diameter of 30mm and 2mm thickness. Drying was done at air velocity of 3ms⁻¹ maintained at three different temperatures of 60℃, 70℃ and 80℃. Blanching of banana slices was done in an aqueous solution of citric acid for 1 minute. RESULTS: Comprison of blanching and without blancing samples was done based on drying kinetics, color, energy analysis, and cost analysis to optimize the drying conditions and reduce the process cost.Two thin layer drying models were fitted to the experimental data using nonlinear regression analysis and the results were evaluated using statistical parameter. The significant effects of drying temperature, drying time and blanching on moisture content of banana slices were analyzed by ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). CONCLUSIONS: The blanching technique was found as cost-effective drying process as compared to the without blanching technique.
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