Increasing the value of the waste generated by food processing is a must from an environmental and economic point of view. This paper addresses the influence of drying temperature and ultrasound application on the drying kinetics and quality of apple peel (Royal Gala var.). Samples were dried at-10, 30, 50 and 70 ºC without and with (50 W) ultrasound application. Color, antioxidant capacity, total phenolic and ascorbic acid content were measured. Ultrasound application and drying temperature significantly shortened the drying time and affected the quality parameters. The drying carried out at 30 ºC with ultrasound application was a fast process that provided samples with good color and antioxidant attributes.

The great amount of waste produced by food industry contains interesting bioactive compounds. The extraction of these compounds requires the by-products previous stabilization being the convective drying one of most used techniques to this end. Drying conditions can affect both drying kinetics and final quality of products. The apple skin, byproduct of apple juice or cider industries, is rich in functional compounds such as polyphenols or vitamin C. The main goal of this contribution was to quantify the influence of temperature and ultrasound application in drying kinetics of apple skin. For this purpose, drying experiments at different temperatures (-10, 30, 50 and 70 ºC) and with (20.5 kW/m3) and without application of ultrasound were carried out. Drying kinetics were modelled by using a diffusion based model. As can be expected, the higher the temperature the faster the drying. Ultrasound application accelerated the process at every temperature tested being the influence slightly lower than found from the literature for other products. This can be attributed at the physical structure of the apple skin, less porous than the pulp. In any case, the application of ultrasound significantly reduced the drying time. Keywords: by-products; dehydration;diffusivity; mass transfer

The great amount of waste produced by the food industry can be an interesting source of bioactive compounds. To this end, convective drying is one of the most extended method to stabilize the industrial by-products. However, drying conditions can affect not only drying kinetics but also the bioactivy of some compounds. Apple skin constitutes one of the main by-product generated in apple juice or cider production. It contains important amounts of functional compounds such as polyphenols or vitamin C whose extraction can be interesting. The main aim of this work was to determine the influence of drying conditions, temperature and application of ultrasound, in some quality parameters of dried apple skin. For this purpose, apple skin samples were dried at different temperatures (-10, 30, 50 and 70 ºC) and with (20.5 kW/m3) or without application of ultrasound. Color, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and vitamin C was measured in fresh and dried samples. The increase of drying temperature and the ultrasound sligthly reduced the antioxidant properties of samples while no influence in sample color was observed. Keywords: by-product; antioxidant; polyphenol; vitamin C; color.