Characterization and drying of caja bagasse (Spondias mombin L.) in a tray dryer using a factorial planning

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Everaldo Silvino dos
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Silva, Andreia Souto da, Oliveira, Edson Leandro de, Oliveira, Jackson Araujo de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/32563; https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-29452012000100032
• topic: Caja; Fruit bagasse; Drying; Factorial planning; Cajá; Planejamento fatorial; Secagem; Bagaço de frutas

The caja (Spondias mombin L.) is used in the manufacture of ice-cream, jams, pulps, beverages being also consumed in natura. One of the most important procedures in food conservation is drying, considering that most fresh fruits contain approximately 80% of water. Food drying is used to obtain two basic aspects: (1) the economic factor; in the shipping and handling of the product; (2) at the manipulation; once dried and grinded, the material is rehydrated, at desirable levels, to formulate a new product as in ice cream, jams, yoghurts and drinks and may also be added to pasta, biscuits and other industrialized products. The aim of this study was to investigate the kinetics of caja bagasse drying in a fixed-bed tray dryer, using central composite factorial planning. The following factors were evaluated: temperature (55, 65 and 75 o C), dryer inlet air velocity (3.2, 4.6 and 6.0 m.s-1) and cake thickness (0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 cm) where the response of the considered variable was caja bagasse moisture content (b.s.) and the results showed that the main effects and their interactions were significant at a 95% confidence level being the best condition obtained at temperature of 75 o C, velocity of 6.0 m.s-1 and cake thickness of 0.8 cm