Drying Characteristics of Osmotically Pre-treated Carrots

The physical characteristics changes of carrots during drying were studied to minimize the quality degradation by applying improved drying process and pretreatment method. Physico-chemical properties of the product were analyzed, and then, drying mechanisms were explained by diffusion coefficients and drying models. In hot air drying process, the drying and rehydration efficiencies were high at low relative humidity and high temperature. Browning degree and specific volume also showed similar trend to drying efficiency. Diffusion coefficient, which describes moisture transfer, was also high at low relative humidity and at high temperature. It was verified using. Arrhenius equation that drying process was influenced by temperature. It was also observed during experiment that temperature changes were more effective in drying than relative humidity changes. Quadratic model was the most fittable in explaining the process. As a result of analyzing the experimental data with respect to the drying time, the contents of carotene and moisture could be modeled as a polynomial. As the air velocity increased, drying performance and rehydration efficiency increased.