Osmotic dehydration of pineapple with calcium and ascorbic acid impregnation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the osmotic dehydration of pineapple (Ananas comosus (L.) Merril), variety Pérola, in sucrose solution with added calcium lactate and ascorbic acid. The kinetics of osmotic dehydration will be determined at different concentrations of sucrose and calcium lactate, keeping constant the concentration of ascorbic acid in dehydrating solution. The mass transfer of the different components as well as changes in physical characteristics of the product will be evaluated at different process conditions. Diffusion coefficients of water, sucrose, calcium and ascorbic acid will be obtained. This study, whose objective is to determine efficient conditions of osmotic dehydration, is part of a wider project where is studied the previous treatments to convective drying of fruits and vegetables, aiming to enhance the nutritional and sensory quality of dehydrated products. It surveyed the pineapple osmotically pretreated in order to obtain an intermediate moisture dried fruit with superior nutritional and sensory quality of dried fruit with no pretreatment. The application of osmotic dehydration aims to reduce the convective drying times and the energy consumption, increase its value through the impregnation of nutrients and improve the sensory properties of the dehydrated product. (AU)