Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Abstract

Osmotic Dehydration of Litchi Using Sucrose Solution: Effect of Mass Transfer

Debabrata Bera and Lakshmishri Roy

Minimal processing techniques like osmodehydration have been finding a significant place in post-harvest practices of fruits and vegetables. Osmodehydration is adopted for extending shelf life of certain fruits. The overall effectiveness of the process is determined by process parameters affecting the mass transfer phenomena. In the present study this technique has been extensively applied on Litchi (Litchi chinensisSonn), a sub-tropical fruit. The process has been effectively modeled and the findings of the result suggest that sugar concentration and temperature significantly influence the process. Developed model could adequately predict the equilibrium point. The effective diffusion coefficients for water loss and solid gain obtained for the process ranged from 0.23 to 0.348×10-10 m2s-1 for water loss and from 0.0428 to 0.0721×10-10 m2s-1 respectively.