Open Sun Drying of Beetroot Slices and its Quality Evaluation Nale Santosh Ankush, Swami Shrikant Baslingappa* Department of Post-harvest Engineering, Post-graduate Institute of Post-harvest Technology and Management, Killa-Roha. Dist: Raigad (Maharashtra State) (Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli-Campus Roha) India *Corresponding author: swami_shrikant1975@yahoo.co.in
Online Published on 08 March, 2024. Abstract Drying characteristics of beetroot slices was investigated by open air sun drying method of 4 mm thickness beetroot slices, beetroot slices dried from 650.750 % (db) moisture content to 7.035 % (db) in open air sun dryer in 50 hr. Seven drying model fitted to experimental data i.e. Newton model, Page model, Exponential, Modified page, Thompson, Midilli, modified page equation II etc. Among the models fitted to the experimental data to open sun drying, the Midilli drying model was well fitted to the experimental data with r2 = 0.9896; MSE = 0.00036 and chi square (χ2) = 0.0414 to experimental moisture ratio with respect to time. Effective Diffusivity (Deff) at time (t) for Beetroot slices drying by open air sundrying was 1.62278 × 10-8 m2/s. Variation in ambient air temperature was in the range 29 - 51.7°C, The product temperature varied from 20 to 49.4°C and the average relative humidity (%) for the ambient air inside the dryer was 48.64±10.21%, and varied from 30 to 65%. Effect of quality parameter i.e. acidity, TSS, pH, reducing sugar, total sugar, moisture, hardness and colour (L, a and b value) on fresh beetroot slices and dried beetroot slices after drying at open air sun drying were determined and discussed at p≤0.05. Total soluble solid of fresh beetroot slices was 10 ± 2.00 °B and open air sun drying total soluble solid content beetroot slices was 58.33±0.58 °B, the pH of beetroot slices before drying was 7.27±0.24 and then after open air sun drying pH of beetroot slices was 5.83±0.25, titratable acidity of beetroot slices before drying was 0.31 ± 0.21 % and it increases up to 0.83±0.14 %, the reducing sugar content of beetroot slices before drying was 0.29±0.03 % and then after open air sun drying reducing sugar content of beetroot slices was 3.12±0.14 %, the total sugar content of beetroot slices before drying was 18.80±0.56 % and then after open air sun drying total sugar content of beetroot slices was 42.01±0.62%, The L, a, b value of beetroot slices before drying was 33.69 ± 0.12, 31.50±0.85 and 9.10±0.16 respectively, then after open air sun drying L, a, b value of beetroot slices was 34.37±0.46, 23.66±0.07 and 16.19±0.002 respectively. Top Keywords Open air sun drying, Moisture ratio, Drying behaviour, Drying models, Effective diffusivity (Deff), Quality evaluation. Top |