Modeling Moisture Loss during Vacuum Belt Drying of Low-Fat Tortilla Chips

Modeling of Effective Moisture Diffusivity in Corn Tortilla Baking

“…is typical. The average thickness (2 L ) of the baked tortillas was 9.48 × 10 –4 ± 3.29 × 10 –5 m. This result was found in the range studied by Braud, Moreira, and Castell‐Perez () (8.9 × 10 –4 to 1.29 × 10 –3 m) and Xu and Kerr () (8 × 10 –4 to 2.3 × 10 –3 m).…”

“…Effective diffusivity obtained for baked tortilla shells are similar in order of magnitude to those reported by Kayacier and Sing () for baked chips (6.25 × 10 −10 to 10.97 × 10 −10 m 2 /s). In addition, Xu and Kerr () used vacuum belt drying for tortilla chips and found effective diffusivities from 1.19 × 10 –9 to 1.54 × 10 –9 m 2 /s; they marked that when a constant diffusivity is considered; the diffusion model initially predicted lower moisture contents than was observed, and later, higher moisture contents. The same behavior was observed in our research when constant diffusivity was assumed.…”

“…Some studies involving drying or baking of corn tortillas to generate tortilla chips have shown that there is no evidence of a constant rate period (Xu & Kerr, ). Generally, molecular diffusion determines the moisture transfer rate during the falling rate period (Seth & Sarkar, ).…”

“…Baked corn tortilla shells, also known as tostadas, are relatively new productss in the snack market and their popularity has increased due to their low fat and energy content (Palazoglu, Savran, & Gokmen, 2010). Some studies have examined combined drying technologies and others have studied processes that only imply drying or baking to produce snack chips (Kayacier & Singh, 2003;Kayacier & Singh, 2004;Xu & Kerr, 2012). Baked tortilla shell processing involves moisture transfer by evaporation from the food to the surrounding air (Fellows, 2017).…”

Sensory and Physicochemical Properties of Sweet Potato Chips Made by Vacuum‐Belt Drying

“…The Δ E was also smallest for the T‐mix samples. Previous studies have shown that the temperature of tortilla chips produced by vacuum drying were relatively low during the initial drying period (Xu and Kerr ). Even though the first plate was at 140C, the actual temperature experienced by the sample was much lower.…”