Open AccessOSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF PUMPKIN (Cucurbita moschata) IN SUCROSE AND SUCROSE-SALT SOLUTIONS. EFFECT OF SOLUTION COMPOSITION AND SAMPLE SIZE
Author(s) -
María Florencia Kvapil,
Lucrecia L. Chaillou,
A.G. QÃ⁄esta,
Rodolfo Horacio Mascheroni
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
latin american applied research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1851-8796
pISSN - 0327-0793
DOI - 10.52292/j.laar.2020.73
Subject(s) - osmotic dehydration , sucrose , chemistry , cucurbita moschata , ternary operation , composition (language) , dehydration , salt (chemistry) , salt solution , mass transfer , sugar , chromatography , food science , biochemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , alternative medicine , pathology , computer science , programming language
Mass transfer during osmotic dehy-dration (OD) of pumpkin cubes was studied as a function of sample size and composition and con-centration of sucrose dehydrating solution. Models of Azuara and Hawkes & Flink were adjusted to the experimental data and optimal dehydrating conditions could be specified. For equal solutes concentration, higher weight losses were reached for smaller size samples. The addition of 2% NaCl increased Water Loss (WL) and lowered Solids Gain (SG) for the solution of higher sucrose con-tent. Prediction capacity of the simplified models was very good under the tested working conditions. In brief, OD can be optimized using 1 cm side cu-bes dehydrated in binary or ternary solutions at the higher sucrose content (55ºBx), maximizing WL and minimizing SG.