Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Abstract

Modelling the Drying Characteristics of Osmosised Coconut Strips at Constant Air Temperature

Agarry SE and Aworanti OA

Drying was performed on osmotically dehydrated coconut meat. The coconut was osmotically pre-treated using three different concentrations of sucrose solutions and immersed in a temperature water bath for 3 h at temperatures of 30, 40 and 50 º C, respectively. The osmosised and non-osmosised (control) coconut strip samples were dried in an oven at a drying temperature of 60ºC. The results showed that drying regime was characteristically in the falling rate period. A regression analysis was used to fit three thin layer drying models to the experimental drying data. The most appropriate model(s) was selected using correlation coefficient (R 2 ) and root mean square error (RMSE). The page model showed a better fit of the experimental drying data (as compared to other models) on the basis that R 2 > 0.99 and RMSE < 0.0130. The effects of the osmotic pre-treatment on the drying data of coconut samples were also explained. The effective moisture diffusivity ranged from 5.74 to 7.88 x 10 -10 m 2 /s for osmosised coconut sample and 5.44 x 10 -10 m 2 /s for non-osmosised coconut sample.