Influence of coating pretreatment with carboxymethyl cellulose in an electrohydrodynamic system on convective drying of banana slices

Abstract

AbstractFor the first time, a carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) coating pretreatment was used in an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) system to produce convectively dried banana slices with improved quality and nutritional attributes. To this end, the impacts of the sample to CMC solution ratio (S:CSR) parameter at two levels of 1:1 and 1:2 and the EHD voltage parameter at four levels of 0, 16, 18, and 20 kV were investigated. The results showed that an increase in the EHD voltage from 0 to 20 kV significantly increased the water absorption capacity (WAC) (117.86%) and the total phenolic content (TPC) (20.83%) of the dried banana slices and significantly reduced their total energy consumption (SETotal) (30.03%), the drying time (27.9%), the shrinkage (74.52%), the shear stress (SS) (76.48%), and the total color difference (ΔE) (78.74%). Moreover, an increase in the S:CSR from 1:1 to 1:2 significantly reduced the shrinkage (20.62%), the SS (21.93%), and ΔE (33.02%) of the dried banana slices and significantly increased their WAC (24.40%) and TPC (16.88%).Practical applicationsAccording to the results obtained in this study, carboxymethyl cellulose coating pretreatment in an EHD system can be introduced as an innovative and practical pretreatment technique for production of convectively dried products. This approach improves both the quality indexes and nutritional attributes while increasing the performance of the convective drying process.