Effect of Osmotic and Ultrasound Pretreatments on Some Quality Characteristics of Air-Dried Banana

مجله پژوهشهای علوم و صنایع غذایی ایران

Article 2, Volume 7, Issue 4 - Serial Number 18, January 2012   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/ifstrj.v7i4.11705

Authors

Fakhri Shahidi^{* 1}; Mohebbat Mohebbi¹; Mohammad Noshad²; Ahmad Ehtiati³; Milad Fathi⁴

¹Department of Food Science and Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

²Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Technology, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran.

³Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

⁴Isfahan University of Technology

Abstract

Banana is one of the most important tropical fruit from commercial and industrial point of view. This fruit is an extremely perishable fruit which can not be preserved using freezing process. Therefore, drying is the most promising method. Conventional air drying is energy intensive and consequently expensive method. Pre-treatments can be used to reduce the initial water content or to modify the fruit tissue which will result in higher yield with lower costs. In this research, the effect of osmotic dehydration and ultrasonic pre-treatment variables prior to air drying of bananas, including the type of solution (Glucose, Sucrose), time of immersion in osmotic solution (30, 45, 60 min), solution concentration (Brix 30 and 50), ultrasonication time (10, 20, 30 min) on water loss, solid gain, shrinkage, effective diffusivities and color in the process were studied. Results showed that the highest rate of water loss and solid gain and also the lowest rate of shrinkage were obtained in both pre-treatments when 50% glucose concentration was applied. The results indicated that unlike ultrasonication, osmotic pretreatment had a significant effect on color parameters of dried bananas.

Keywords: Banana, Drying, Image processing, Osmotic dehydration, Qualitative characteristics, Ultrasound