Use of a forced convection solar dryer for the reduction of post-harvest losses: case of the “akikon” tomato variety in Benin (West Africa)

Abstract

The local variety tomato (Lycopercicum esculentum Mill) named "akikon" is one of the most consumed and widely cultivated fruiting vegetables in Benin Republic. In this work, we designed and built a dryer usable for limiting the frequent losses of the produced tomatoes. This paper analyzes the first results, obtained from the different experiments carried out with the developed dryer, in a context of forced convection. The results showed that increasing the temperature resulted in a shorter drying time and a brighter colour of the dried tomato. However, the temperature has no influence on the smell of the dried tomato. After a storage time of about 7-8 months, a colour of the dried product has changed from red to red-brown, indicating that the storage method still needs to be improved.