Abstract
ABSTRACT Biofortified sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is one of the foods with the highest contributions of carotenoids in the diet, especially provitamin A carotenoids. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the drying kinetics of the biofortified sweet potato pulp using the Akaike (AIC) and Schwarz's Bayesian (BIC) information criteria for model selection, as well as determine the effective diffusion coefficient and activation energy under different drying conditions. The biofortified sweet potatoes were sliced into chips and submitted to drying in an air circulation oven at 1.0 m s−1 at temperatures of 45, 55, 65, and 75 °C until constant mass. The mathematical models Wang and Singh, Verma, Thompson, Page, Newton, Midilli et al., logarithmic, Henderson and Pabis, two-term exponential, two-term, diffusion approach, frequently used to predict the drying of vegetal products, were adjusted to the data. The Wang and Singh model was selected to represent the drying of the biofortified sweet potato pulp by exhibiting the best adjustment for most conditions. The AIC and BIC criteria were suitable for selecting the Wang and Singh model. The effective diffusion coefficient increased as drying air temperature increase and the activation energy for liquid diffusion was 29.18 kJ mol−1.
Highlights
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) has a prominent role, as it is one of the most important food crops in the world (Kim et al, 2012)
The effective diffusion coefficient increased as drying air temperature increase and the activation energy for liquid diffusion was 29.18 kJ mol−1
For temperatures of 45 and 55 °C, the Wang and Singh (2), Verma (3), Page (5), Midilli et al (7), logarithmic (8), and two-term (11) models presented values lower than 10% for P, while the Wang and Singh, logarithmic, and Midilli et al models obtained low values of P for 65 and 75 °C, standing out in the representation of the drying phenomenon
Summary
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) has a prominent role, as it is one of the most important food crops in the world (Kim et al, 2012). It has a significant β-carotene content, whose regular intake can prevent and combat blindness and infant mortality caused by vitamin A deficiency, especially in poorer populations that do not have access to other vitamin A sources (Nascimento et al, 2013). The application of reliable mathematical models allows predicting the behavior of the various phenomena that occur during the drying process, which implies the reduction of the operational cost (Dionello et al, 2009). Some parameters have limitations and it is necessary to adopt additional criteria to reinforce and endorse decision-making, such as the Akaike (AIC) and Schwarz’s Bayesian (BIC) information criteria (Gomes et al 2018)
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