Kinetics and Modeling of Osmotic Dehydration of Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) using a Low- calorie Sugar

Abstract

The study was aimed at evaluating the influence of process variableon mass transfer parameters; water loss (WL) and solute gain (SG) on osmotic dehydration of plantain (Musa paradisiaca) in low calorie sugar solution. Fully matured unripe plantain fruits of the ´´False Horn´´ cultivar were peeled and sliced into thicknesses of 2.5, 5 and 10mm. The slices were immersed in the commercial low-calorie sugar solutionsof concentrations 12.5, 25 and 50% and varying sample /solution ratio (1:5, 1:10 and 1:20) at room temperature (27 ± 2). To investigate the effect of temperature, plantain slices of thickness 5mm were immersed in low calorie sugar solution of concentration 12.5 and sample/solution ratio 1:20 at temperatures 30, 40 and 50°C. The water WL and SG of the slices under the different experimental conditions were measured at various time intervals (10, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 and 140min). The kinetics of the osmotic dehydration was modeled using the Azuara, Peleg and Page models.Plantain slice of thickness 5mm, low-calorie sugar solution concentration of 50% at temperature 40°C, and a sample/solution ratio of 1:20 was judged best for osmotic treatment of plantains in low-calorie sugar solution.The Peleg model best described the dehydration kinetics with the highest R2(> 0.999) and the least RMSE.