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Modelling of air drying of fresh and blanched sweet potato slices
Author(s) -
Falade Kolawole O.,
Solademi Oluwakemi J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
international journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.831
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1365-2621
pISSN - 0950-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2009.02133.x
Subject(s) - blanching , arrhenius equation , activation energy , coefficient of determination , diffusion , water content , moisture , potato starch , chemistry , correlation coefficient , air temperature , horticulture , botany , materials science , food science , mathematics , thermodynamics , starch , composite material , meteorology , biology , geology , statistics , organic chemistry , physics , geotechnical engineering
Summary Effects of blanching, drying temperatures (50–80 °C) and thickness (5, 10 and 15 mm) on drying characteristics of sweet potato slices were investigated. Lewis, Henderson and Pabis, Modified Page and Page models were tested with the drying patterns. Page and Modified Page models best described the drying curves. Moisture ratio vs. drying time profiles of the models showed high correlation coefficient ( R 2 = 0.9864–0.9967), and low root mean squared error (RMSE = 0.0018–0.0130) and chi‐squared (χ 2 = 3.446 × 10 –6 –1.03 × 10 –2 ). Drying of sweet potato was predominantly in the falling rate period. The temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient ( D eff ) was described by Arrhenius relationship. D eff increased with increasing thickness and air temperature. D eff of fresh and blanched sweet potato slices varied between 6.36 × 10 –11 –1.78 × 10 –9 and 1.25 × 10 –10 –9.75 × 10 –9 m 2 s –1 , respectively. Activation energy for moisture diffusion of the slices ranged between 11.1 and 30.4 kJ mol –1 .