Comparative Evaluation of Drying Kinetics of Carrot Slices in Hot air and Microwave Drying

Carrot is most the important vegetable grown throughout the World. It is also avery good source of βcarotene, α-carotene and zeaxanthin. The post-harvest lossesbecause of having high moisture content limit the utilization of carrot. In the presentinvestigation, the comparative analysis was done between hot air drying and microwavedrying for different thickness of carrot slices. The quality analysis for both the driedproducts was performed and compared. The drying time was varied between 3.5 h to 10 hfor try drying whereas for microwave drying it was 240 sec to 681.6 sec. The drying timereduces drastically in case of microwave drying in comparison to hot air drying. Themoisture ratio for both dried techniques was found to decreasing with an increase indrying time. The microwave dried samples showed a better rehydration ratio than the hotair dried sample. Also, the dehydration ratio of dried carrot sample using microwavedrying was found to be lowest compared to the hot air dried sample. The microwave driedcarrot slices showed a better sensory score in terms of colour and shape than hot airdried sample. Therefore, microwave drying may be recommended to dry carrot slices tohave better energy efficiencies