A METHOD FOR CONTINUOUS KINETIC EVALUATION OF OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION

A method to determine the kinetics of osmotic dehydration was develope d The method involves the measurement of weight loss in a single sampl e and its final moisture at the end of the process The method was test ed in the osmotic dehydration of apple disks of 4.6 cm diameter and 0. 4 cm thickness. Temperature was set at 30 degrees C and a drying solut ion containing 500 g sucrose/kg was used. The results showed that disp ersion of the experimental points was worse when several samples were used to measure average weight loss (14.8%) than when the continuous m ethod was employed (3.9%). The continuous method is useful to predict variations of the final moisture with respect to drying time. (C) 1998 Academic Press.