Studies on the drying kinetics and quality assessment of banana pseudostem waste for effective utilization as a value added product Cpambrose Dawn*, Lakshman R, Naik Ravindra Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, IEPCentre, Coimbatore-641003, Tamil Nadu, India *Email for correspondence: dawncp@yahoo.com
Online published on 25 July, 2018. Abstract The study was aimed at drying of pseudostem by different drying methods viz sun drying, solar polyhouse drying and cabinet drying at 50, 60 and 70°C. The changes in moisture content during drying were noted by recording the weight loss of the samples at every intermittent interval. The experimental data were fit to thin layer mathematical models and the goodness of fit was evaluated. Logarithmic model was found to give the best fit in terms of high coefficient of determination (R2) and low chi-square value. The effect of drying on per cent shrinkage, colour and nutritional quality such as crude fibre and total ash was estimated. Time and temperature had a reasonable impact on the shrinkage value of the dried samples (P <0.05). The quality parameters revealed that cabinet drying of banana centre core slices at 60°C resulted in better product by colour value, crude fibre and total ash. Top Keywords Pseudostem, drying, mathematical models, shrinkage, quality. Top |