Effects of Drying Conditions on Energy Consumption and the Nutritional and Organoleptic Quality of Dried Bananas
Journal of Food Engineering Volume 268, March 2020, 109747
19 Pages Posted: 10 Nov 2018 Last revised: 4 Jun 2020
Date Written: October 17, 2018
Abstract
This work has aimed to determine the conditions of energy efficiency that best preserve a good nutritional and organoleptic quality of the product during the drying process. For this purpose, banana slices 5 mm thick were dried at temperatures of 45, 55 and 65°C under air flow rates of 20, 24, and 28 dm3/s. The drying kinetics obtained were corrected by taking into account the contraction in order to highlight the different drying phases. The results showed that the reduced critical water content varies between 0.45 and 0.65. The influence of the temperature on the drying speed was greater than that of the air flow. During the constant rate drying phase controlled by the conditions external to the products, drying at 65°C with an air flow rate of 24 dm3/s is the most energy efficient process. Analysis of the nutritional composition of fresh and dry samples shows that fat, reducing sugars and vitamin C are the most sensitive nutrients to drying with losses respectively up to 79.55%, 55.81% and 37%, 61%. The sensory assessment of the dried samples shows that the drying at 65°C made it possible to limit the enzymatic browning at the beginning of drying and to obtain a dry product of better organoleptic quality.
Keywords: drying, energy efficiency, nutritional value, organoleptic quality, critical water content, banana
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