Osmotic dehydration of the Indian fig (Opuntia ficus indica) with binary and ternary solutions

Abstract

Summary The objective of this work was to study osmotic dehydration (OD) of the Indian fig with two binary solutions (sucrose/water and glucose/water) and a ternary solution (sucrose/NaCl/water) according to a 23 factorial design with independent variables: temperature (30–50 °C), immersion time (90–240 min) and concentration (40–60 °Brix). The dependent variables were water loss (WL), solid gain (SG) and dehydration efficiency index. The temperature had greater influence on the WL in the three hypertonic solutions studied; the concentration had greater influence on the SG in the three hypertonic solutions investigated and the best conditions for the OD of the Indian fig were in glucose solution at 40 °Brix, 40 °C and 165 min.

Optimization of osmotic dehydration of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) slices using Response Surface Methodology

“…Besides having the advantage of analyzing the effects of independent variables, this methodology generates a mathematical model that describes the chemical or biochemical processes under study (Anjum, Tasadduq, & AlSultan, 1997). In particular, RSM has been applied to osmotic dehydration studies of some fruits and vegetables, including apples (Azarpazhooh & Ramaswamy, 2012), bananas (Atares, Gallagher, & Oliveira, 2011), carrots (Changrue, Orsat, Raghavan, & Lyew, 2008), cherry tomatoes (Derossi, Severini, Del Mastro, & De Pilli, 2015), figs (Vasconcelos, Andrade, Maciel, Guerra, & Vasconcelos, 2012), green peppers (Ozdemir, Ozen, Dock, & Floros, 2008), kiwi (Cao, Zhang, Mujumdar, Du, & Sun, 2006), peaches (Yadav, Yadav, & Jatain, 2012), plums (Koocheki & Azarpazhooh, 2010) and strawberries (Changrue et al, 2008). Generally, three factors are studied, namely, temperature, time and concentration of the osmotic solution (Azarpazhooh & Ramaswamy, 2012;Cao et al, 2006;Changrue et al, 2008;Koocheki & Azarpazhooh, 2010;Vasconcelos et al, 2012;Yadav et al, 2012).…”

“…In particular, RSM has been applied to osmotic dehydration studies of some fruits and vegetables, including apples (Azarpazhooh & Ramaswamy, 2012), bananas (Atares, Gallagher, & Oliveira, 2011), carrots (Changrue, Orsat, Raghavan, & Lyew, 2008), cherry tomatoes (Derossi, Severini, Del Mastro, & De Pilli, 2015), figs (Vasconcelos, Andrade, Maciel, Guerra, & Vasconcelos, 2012), green peppers (Ozdemir, Ozen, Dock, & Floros, 2008), kiwi (Cao, Zhang, Mujumdar, Du, & Sun, 2006), peaches (Yadav, Yadav, & Jatain, 2012), plums (Koocheki & Azarpazhooh, 2010) and strawberries (Changrue et al, 2008). Generally, three factors are studied, namely, temperature, time and concentration of the osmotic solution (Azarpazhooh & Ramaswamy, 2012;Cao et al, 2006;Changrue et al, 2008;Koocheki & Azarpazhooh, 2010;Vasconcelos et al, 2012;Yadav et al, 2012). Regarding chestnut, most studies of OD have been focused on whole fruits of Spanish chestnut varieties, and primarily on diverse osmotic agents and temperatures (Chenlo, Moreira, Fernández-Herrero, & Vázquez, 2006b, 2006aMoreira, Chenlo, Chaguri, & Oliveira, 2007;Moreira, Chenlo, Chaguri, & Fernandes, 2008;Moreira, Chenlo, Chaguri, & Vazquez, 2011;Moreira, Chenlo, Chaguri, & Mayor, 2011).…”

Optimisation of the pulsed vacuum osmotic dehydration of cladodes of fodder palm

“…Pulsed vacuum osmotic dehydration (PVOD) is an osmotic treatment in which a vacuum pulse is applied at the first minutes, followed by an extensive period of osmotic dehydration at atmospheric pressure (Fante et al ., ). While a standard osmotic dehydration (OD) is based on the osmotic pressure gradient between the solution and the food (Corrêa et al ., ; Vasconcelos et al ., ), the PVOD also presents the pressure gradient established by the use of vacuum. As a result, the PVOD process, besides the diffusional transport characteristic of OD, also presents a hydrodynamic mechanism (HDM) in the first minutes.…”

Dried Figs Quality Improvement and Process Energy Savings by Combinatory Application of Osmotic Pretreatment and Conventional Air Drying

“…The effect of various osmotic solutions on the mass transfer phenomena of OD treatment and on the quality of figs, with OD being a stand-alone dehydration technique, is being reported [1,9,[20][21][22]. There are limited works that have studied the combined effect of OD with air-drying [23,24] on the quality of final dried figs.…”