Effects of pretreatments on drying of Turkey berry in fluidized bed dryer

Abstract

The influence of pre-treatment methods like physical, chemical, combined physical, and hybrid treatments on the Turkey berry fruits to enhance the water diffusion during drying was assessed due to the removal of a waxy layer on the peel. Pre-treated and untreated samples were dried at 70?C and 4 m/s of air flow in a fluidized bed dryer. Fruits pre-treated with combined abrasion and blanching have the lowest drying time, and favorable Vitamin-C content retention of 36%. The highest drying rate of 0.396 kg water/kg db min?1, maximum effective moisture diffusivity of 6.002 x 10-10 m2/s, and volumetric shrinkage ratio of 0.68 were obtained for fruits which undergone combined physical pre-treatment along with drying. The maximum change in color ?E = 14.75 and Chroma ?C = - 10.53 were obtained for the un-treated samples.