Article No.

fs970364

Lebensm.-Wiss. u.-Technol., 31, 317321 (1998)

A Method for Continuous Kinetic Evaluation of Osmotic Dehydration

Ebner Azuara*, Cesar I. Beristain and Gustavo F. Gutierrez E. Azuara, C. I. Beristain: Instituto de Ciencias Basicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Apdo. Postal 575, Xalapa, Ver. (Mexico) G. F. Gutierrez: Departamento de Graduados en Alimentos, ENCB-IPN, Apdo. Postal 42186, CP 06470 Mexico, D.F. (Mexico) G. F. Gutierrez: Food Science and Technology Department, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AP (UK) (Received June 9, 1997; accepted December 1, 1997)

A method to determine the kinetics of osmotic dehydration was developed. The method involves the measurement of weight loss in a single sample and its nal moisture at the end of the process. The method was tested in the osmotic dehydration of apple disks of 4.6 cm diameter and 0.4 cm thickness. Temperature was set at 30 C and a drying solution containing 500 g sucrose/kg was used. The results showed that dispersion of the experimental points was worse when several samples were used to measure average weight loss (14.8%) than when the continuous method was employed (3.9%). The continuous method is useful to predict variations of the nal moisture with respect to drying time. 1998 Academic Press Keywords: mass transfer; continuous method; apple

Introduction Traditionally, experimental data for mass transfer studies during osmotic dehydration are obtained from a number of foodstuff samples having the same geometry and dimensions, assuming that all the pieces have equal weight, volume and moisture content (discontinuous method). Many authors have used the discontinuous method to follow the kinetics of osmodehydration (17). When a number of samples with an average geometry and size are used to determine the kinetics of osmotic dehydration, it becomes necessary to keep a tight control on the degree of ripening of the product. This precaution reduced excessive dispersion of experimental data (8) which could lead to erroneous interpretations. It is difcult to obtain samples with the same degree of ripening; therefore the same sample was used throughout the osmotic dehydration process to prevent the data scattering (9, 10). We have called this approach the continuous method. The purpose of the present work was to study the continuous method to obtain kinetic data for osmodehydration at different times and evaluate the dispersion
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.

of the predictions made by the traditional discontinuous method. Materials and Methods Materials Golden apples and rened sugar were purchased in a local market and used in all experiments. The apples were cut into disks of 4.6 cm diameter and 0.4 cm thickness. Immediately after being cut, the apple pieces were immersed in a 2 g/L solution of ascorbic acid. Procedure Apple pieces were osmotically dehydrated at 30 C in a solution containing 500 g of sucrose/kg. The ratio of foodstuff to solution was greater than 1:20. Samples were withdrawn at periodic intervals during 5 h. Excess solution from the surface was blot dried using paper towels. In the continuous method, each sample was weighed and returned to the osmotic solution to continue the drying process. After 5 h, the moisture content of the sample was determined in a vacuum oven at 70 C for 24 h (11). Alternatively, for the traditional discontinuous method 17 samples from the same batch were used, and weight loss and moisture in different samples of the same dimensions and geometry
1998 Academic Press

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were measured. In both methods, each experimental treatment was performed in triplicate runs. S1 = (1/b) WFL 1 SG WFL m

Mathematical modelling Azuara et al. (12) calculated water loss and solid gain during osmotic dehydration using equations with two parameters obtained from mass balances. WFL = s1tWFL 1 + s1t s2tSG 1 + s2t Eqn [2] Eqn [1]

[ (

) ]

Eqn [9]

SG =
8

(1/p)

[( [(

WFL 1 SG m

] ]

Eqn [10]

SG =

where t = time, s1 = a constant related to water loss, s2 = a constant related to solids gain, WFL = amount of water lost by the foodstuff at time t (fraction, percent, g, or kg), SG = amount of solids gained by the foodstuff at time t (fraction, percent, g or kg), WFL = amount of water lost at equilibrium, and SG = amount of solids gained at equilibrium. Mass loss (ML) during osmotic dehydration is equal to water lost (WFL) minus solids gained (SG) at the same time. ML = WFL SG Eqn [3]

S2 = SG

(1/b) WFL 1 SG m

Eqn [11]

Subscript m means that WFL and SG are determined at the last point of the experiment, using the equations of Beristain et al. (13), WFL M0 SG M0 = M0C0 MtCf M0 Eqn [12]

Subtracting Eqn [1] from Eqn [2] and rearranging, we obtain: s1tWFL 1
8

M0 (C0 1) Mt (Cf 1) M0 Eqn [13]

ML =

[ (

SG WFL

)]

1 + s1t

Eqn [4]

Eqn [4] can be written in the following form: s2tSG ML =

[(WFL) 1] SG

where M0 = initial weight of the foodstuff (t = 0), Mt = weight of the food at time t, C0 = initial moisture of the foodstuff (wet basis), and Cf = nal moisture of the foodstuff (wet basis) at time t. If s1, s2, WFL and SG are known, it is possible to calculate WFL and SG at any time. Cf can also be predicted using the following equation: Cf = M0C0 (WFL)M0 Mt Eqn [14]

1 + s2t

Eqn [5]

Linearizing Eqn [4] and Eqn [5]: 1 t t = + SG ML s WFL 1 SG WFL 1 1 WFL WFL

Moisture loss (Cf L) was obtained according to the equation:

[ (

)]

[ (

)] Eqn [6]
t/ML (min/g)

700 600

t = ML s SG
2

[(

1 + WFL 1 SG SG

) ]

[(

t WFL 1 SG

500

) ]

Eqn [7]

400 300 200 100 0 50 0 50 100 150 200 Time (min) 250 300 350

If we plot t/ML vs. t, we can dene b to be the intercept and p the slope of the resulting straight line, then the following equations arise:

WFL =
8

[ ( ) ]

(1/p) SG 1 WFL m

Eqn [8]

Fig. 1 Plot of (t/ML) vs. t for the continuous method, during osmotic dehydration of apple disks. ( ), Sample 1 (r2 = 0.994); ( ), sample 2 (r2 = 0.998); ( ), sample 3 (r2 = 0.998); ( ), average (r2 = 0.998)

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CfL = 1 Cf/C0

Eqn [15]

The criterion used to evaluate goodness of t was the modulus of the mean relative deviation (P%) between the experimental values and those predicted by equations [6] and [7] as proposed by Lomauro et al. (14): P(%) = 100 n
m

Statistical analysis A two-sample t-test was performed between the means of the mass loss, moisture loss, water loss and solids gain obtained by both methods.

|Mi Mpi| Mi Eqn [16]

Results and Discussion Figure 1 shows the data obtained using the continuous method for apple disks. It is evident that Eqn [6] and Eqn [7] apply and a good t is obtained with a r2 of 0.999 and a P value of 2.915%. Calculated average values for WFL , SG and s1 from the slope and intercept of the straight lines were 0.721 g of water/g of fresh apple, 0.197 g of sucrose/g of fresh apple and 0.032 min1, respectively. Figures 25 depict the kinetics of normalized values of mass loss, water loss, solids gain and moisture loss. These normalized mass transport data are dened as the ratio of the mass loss, water loss, solids gain and moisture loss at t time to the maximum value obtained with each method during osmotic dehydration. The two-sample t-test did not reveal differences between discontinuous and continuous methods at the 5% signicance level. On the other hand, Table 1 shows the average relative % deviation

i = 1

where Mi and Mpi are respectively the experimental and predicted values and n is the number of experimental data points. For each experimental point, the relative % deviation (D) between the mean and the individual values was determined by the method described by Yanniotis and Zarmboutis (15): D = 100 3
3

| xi x| x Eqn [17]

i = 1

where xi is the normalized individual value of mass transfer parameter (mass loss, water loss, solids gain or moisture loss) of the three samples in each time and x is their arithmetic mean.

(a) 1.2 1
Normalized mass loss

(a) 1.2
Normalized moisture loss

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.2 50 0 50 100 150 200 Time (min) 250 300 350

50

100

150 200 Time (min)

250

300

350

(b) 1.2 1
Normalized mass loss

(b) 1.2
Normalized moisture loss

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.2 50 0 50 100 150 200 Time (min) 250 300 350

50

100

150 200 Time (min)

250

300

350

Fig. 2 Comparison of the normalized mass loss (NML) obtained from (a) the discontinuous method with NML obtained from (b) the continuous method. (F), Experiment or sample 1; ( ), experiment or sample 2; ( ), experiment or sample 3; ( ), average

Fig. 3 Comparison of the normalized moisture loss (NHL) obtained from (a) the discontinuous method with NHL obtained from (b) the continuous method. (F), Experiment or sample 1; ( ), experiment or sample 2; ( ), experiment or sample 3; ( ), average

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(a) 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

(a) 1.2 1
Normalized solids gain

Normalized water loss

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

50

100

150 200 Time (min)

250

300

350

50

100

200 150 Time (min)

250

300

350

(b) 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

(b) 1.2
Normalized solids gain

Normalized water loss

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

50

100

150 200 Time (min)

250

300

350

50

100

150 200 Time (min)

250

300

350

Fig. 4 Comparison of the normalized water loss (NWFL) obtained from (a) the discontinuous method with NWFL obtained from (b) the continuous method. For (a), ( ), experiment 1; ( ), experiment 2; (F), experiment 3. For (b), (F), sample 1; ( ), sample 2; ( ), sample 3. ( ), average

Fig. 5 Comparison of the normalized solids gain (NSG) obtained from (a) the discontinuous method with NSG obtained from (b) the continuous method. For (a), ( ), experiment 1; ( ), experiment 2; (F), experiment 3. For (b), (F), sample 1; ( ), sample 2; ( ), sample 3. ( ), average

(D) calculated of the arithmetic mean of D. Greater deviation is evident for samples taken with the discontinuous method. The highest deviation values were found at rst experimental points. Even though the pieces have the same dimensions and geometry, there may be differences in weight, moisture and initial soluble solids. Practically no dispersion can be observed in the measurements made on the sample used for the continuous method (see Figs 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b and Table 1). The single-sample approach may have additional advantages of time, reagent and labour savings. It is important to notice that, in both methods, water loss and solid gain increased linearly with each other throughout the process. Water loss proceeds parallel to solid uptake, which is in agreement with the results of other workers (16).

Table 1 Average D values calculated for the discontinuous and continuous methods D 95% confidence interval 14.8 6.5 9.1 4.0 8.1 4.1 17.8 7.1 3.9 3.5 8.9 7.7 4.7 2.1 4.7 2.1

Method Discontinuous

Variable Mass loss Moisture loss Water loss Solids gain Mass loss Moisture loss Water loss Solids gain

Continuous

References
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Conclusions The proposed continuous method to monitor the osmotic dehydration process offers simplied data collection and less scatter. This method may facilitate the interpretation and modelling of the process and makes it easier to predict moisture changes as a function of drying time.

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