Assessment of Osmotic Pre-Drying Treatment on Drying Rates of Fresh Tomato Fruits

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of osmotic pre-drying treatments on drying rates of tomato (Lycopersiconesculentum) at various drying temperatures. Fresh Roma tomato fruit samples were sliced to a thickness of 5 mm and the seeds were removed. Weight of 300 g was measured for each of the three replicates and immersed in a hypertonic solution of sucrose of different concentrations 40 and 60 ^oBrix each held for osmotic duration of 1 and 2 hours, drained for 10 min and then dried at 50, 60, and 70 ^oC in a mechanical dryer. Control samples were also weighed 300 g per replicate and dried at 50, 60, and 70 ^oC without pre-drying treatment. The initial moisture content of fresh tomato used was 94.5% (wb). Moisture loss of each sample was monitored and recorded hourly until the product has reached the desired final moisture content (≤ 7%).The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan New Multiple range tests (DNMRT) to ascertain the level of significance differences between the individual treatments and their interaction at p ≤ 0.05.The results show that at all the drying temperatures used, the control tomato samples exhibited the fastest drying rate with an average of 35.2 g/hr, samples pre-treated at 40 oBrix has an average drying rate of 26.6 g/hr, while samples pre-treated at 60 ^oBrix has the slowest drying rate of 25.2 g/hr. It was also revealed that samples subjected to 1 hour osmotic time have faster drying rates than those treated for 2 hours osmotic time.