MOISTURE SORPTION CHARACTERISTICS OF BLANCHED AND OSMOTICALLY TREATEDAPPLES AND PAPAYAS

The moisture adsorption and desorption characteristics of blanched and osmotically treated apples and papayas and the color of the equilibra ted samples were evaluated at 25 degrees C. The sorption isotherms wer e in agreement with the reported shape for high sugar foodstuffs. A tw o-way analysis of variance showed that there was not hysteresis for th e blanched fruits; however, this phenomenon was present in the osmotic ally treated samples. Different equations proposed in the literature w ere used to fit sorption data. The best fit was obtained with GAS mode l (average mean relative deviation of 9.8%). The apples' white and the papayas' yellow indexes of the equilibrated fruits decreased as a, in creased. Browning of the apples varied with the type of isotherm (adso rption or desorption) and with the initial sugar content.