Microwave-assisted hot air drying of bone broth-based sauce

Abstract In this study, it was aimed to bring the bone broth-based sauce into powder form by microwave assisted hot air drying method and to determine the drying characteristics of this product. Bone broth-based sauces were dried at the drying temperatures of 60, 70 and 80 °C, and at the microwave powers of 90, 180 and 360 W, until a moisture content of 10% (dry basis). The moisture ratio (MR) was significantly influenced by the drying temperature and microwave power. Ten kinetic models were selected to evaluate MR data, with regard to adjusted regression coefficient (R2 ), the reduced chi-square (χ2 ) and root mean square error (RMSE). Midilli and Page models exhibited a better fit for the drying kinetics of bone broth-based sauce than the other drying models tested. In addition, the effective moisture diffusivity (Deff ) and activation energy (Ea ) values were 1.27 × 10−7 m2/s and 27 kJ/mol, respectively. Consequently, these results can be used to simulate the microwave assisted hot air drying of bone broth-based sauce and improve the efficiency of the drying process.