Infrared and Microwave as a dry blanching tool for Irish potato: Product quality, cell integrity, and artificial neural networks (ANNs) modeling of enzyme inactivation kinetic

Abstract

This study evaluated the use of Infrared (IR) and microwave (MW) dry blanching technology as an alternative to the conventional hot water (HW) blanching of Irish potato slices. Product quality, cell integrity, and Peroxidase (POD) inactivation kinetics were investigated. Also, the POD inactivation kinetics curve was fitted with both mathematical models and artificial neural networks (ANNs). The result showed that MW blanching technique had the shortest POD inactivation time (5 and 7 mins), when compared with HW blanching (7 and 9 mins) and IR blanching (18 and 21 mins). IR blanched samples had the lowest colour change, slowest moisture loss, and lower microbial activity when compared with HW and MW blanching, although the level of vitamin C retention was similar with MW blanched samples. Furthermore, MW blanching had lower electrolyte leakage and microstructure damage, and better texture, when compared with HW and IR blanching. ANNs (R2 = 1.000, RMSE = 1.1597e-14, and SSE = 2.8994e-15) outperformed Weibull distribution (R2 = 0.9914, RMSE = 0.0348, and SSE = 0.0073) in fitting the POD inactivation curve. In conclusion, IR and MW technology were efficient in dry blanching of Irish potato, and ANNs allows for smart industrial control and monitoring of dry blanching equipments, since it can combine multiple process variables.