A Comparison of Hot Air vs. Microwave Drying Methods in Production of Banana Chips

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

Bananas of long Cavendish variety constituted the experimental samples in this research work. Following the slicing of bananas, the samples were treated with three pretreatments of: 1% sodium bisulphate (T1), a combination of blanching and 1% sodium bisulphate treatment (T2), combined blanching and treatment with 1% ascorbic plus citric acid (1:1) mixture (T3) as well as an untreated sample, considered as control (T0). All the samples were dried making use of two drying methods: (Hot air drying in 60, 70 and 80°c vs. microwave drying of 300, 500 and 700 W power intensity). Dried samples were evaluated for some such quality measures as color, sugar content (sucrose), vitamin C content, rehydration as well as drying time and rate. The results showed that drying time in the case of microwave drying was shorter than that in hot air drying. A 90% decrease in drying time was observed in microwave drying method rather than hot air drying. In comparison with untreated samples, pretreatments caused an increase in drying rate while a decrease in the needed drying time. On the whole, (T2) pretreatment acquired a more positive score relative to other treatments from view point of quality parameters.

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