Vol. 12, Issue 10 (2023)

Author(s):
Mohini M Dange, Pragati R Thakare and Madhuri H Gajabe

Abstract:
The experiments were conducted to evaluate impact of convective drying behavior and quality attributes of osmotically dehydrated radish cubes. The optimized osmotically pre-treated samples in sugar solution were further dried using convective tray dryer with air temperature of 40, 45, 50 and 55 °C. The result recorded the optimum process parameters i.e., syrup temperature 52.47 °C, sugar concentration 40°B and duration or time 238.57 min for determined the various responses i.e., 53.34% water loss and 8.45% sugar gain and 80.66 colour (L). Results of validation tests were highly acceptable since the coefficient of Regression Coefficient (R greater than 0.98) and coefficient of variation (CV<5%) of the responses. The moisture content of the product was reduced with drying time in falling rate period. Drying time was observed lower in higher air temperature of 55 °C (540 min) and higher in lower temperature of 40 °C (690 min). The osmo-convective dehydrated radish cubes at 50 °C air temperature showed the best result for quality attributes i.e., colour (L* value) 80.15, water activity 0.229, rehydration ratio 2.36, hardness 1.91 kg and overall acceptability as 8.06.