Studies on variations in Physico-chemical Properties of Mustard Seeds during Drying and Fluidized bed Drying Kinetics

Proper drying methods can prevent the damage of food grains by changing in physic-chemical properties and minimize the spoilage during storage and improve the nutrition quality of grain. Thus proper drying methods are very important to choose based on operating conditions and cost. In present work, the typical variations in physico-chemical properties of mustard seeds obtained from Varshakonda Village in Telangana State were investigated during drying in Hot Air Oven, Tray Drier and Fluidized Bed drier. Removal of moisture during fluidized bed drying is observed very effective. Also, nutritional properties like fat, protein, phosphorous & iron contents were found to decrease considerably low during drying in Fluidized bed comparatively in hot air oven and tray drier. Therefore, mustard seeds can effectively dried in Fluidized Bed. The fluidization characteristics of mustard seeds under different operating conditions were investigated in order to find out best drying method to dry mustard seeds.