KINETICS OF OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF COCONUT

Osmotic dehydration rates were determined for coconut over a range of osmotic solution concentration (40-70 degrees B) and temperature (25-4 5C). A semiempirical relation for kinetics of osmotic dehydration has been proposed, which indicates the moisture diffusion as a function of concentration of osmotic solution and its temperature. Good agreement was observed between the observed and predicted values (correlation c oefficient 0.90). The effective diffusion coefficients of;water in coc onut during osmotic dehydration were estimated and also the activation energy of the osmotic dehydration process of coconut was found as 1.7 5 x 10(4) J/kg-mole.