Modeling of Drying Patterns of Fresh and Osmotically Pretreated Cooking Banana and Plantain Slices

Abstract

Air-drying of fresh and osmosed plantain and cooking banana slices was modeled using four equations. Temperature dependence of moisture diffusivity (D eff) was described by Arrhenius relationship, and activation energy (E a) was calculated. Drying of fresh and osmosed commodities showed two falling rates. D eff of fresh and osmosed plantain and cooking banana varied between 3.80 × 10−10–8.62 × 10−9 and 1.29 × 10−10–3.91 × 10−9 m2/s, respectively. E a for drying of cooking banana and plantain were 12.30–24.09 and 12.15–19.93 kJ/mol, respectively. Page showed higher correlation coefficient, lower root mean-squared error, chi-squared and percentage error of 0.5563–0.9995 and 0.4692–0.999, 9.86 × 10−9–0.03683 and 9.06 × 10−5–0.2125, 9.73 × 10−5–1.37 × 10−1 and 9.06 × 10−5–2.125 × 10−1, and 0.447–4.412 and 0.049–8.707 for plantain and cooking banana, respectively. Practical Application Plantain and cooking banana ripen rapidly, and can only be stored for a few days, limiting their availability all year round. Processing of plantain and cooking banana into shelf stable intermediate moisture fruit products through less capital intensive technologies such as osmotic dehydration with subsequent air-drying will reduce their postharvest losses, and add value and extended shelf life. Modeling of the air-drying behavior of fresh and osmotically pretreated plantain and cooking banana slices will provide data needed for the process and equipment design.