Modeling of Efficient Hot Air Drying of Apple Snails (<em>Pomacea canaliculata</em>) for Use as a Fishmeal Protein Substitute

Abstract

Snails are a kind of important aquatic products and dehydration is the main technique in production of snail meal. Apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) dehydration meets both the demand for a fishmeal substitute in aquaculture and invasive species control in agriculture. In this study, we investigated the percentage of the nutritive material, examined the drying characteristics at 60, 80, 100 and 120°C, respectively, established a drying kinetics model and explored the effect of body morphology on drying efficiency. The results showed that the wet weight percentage of the soft parts was 46.61±6.18%. The drying efficiency was significantly improved with an increase of drying temperature from 60 to 120°C. The drying time increased rapidly when the final moisture content approached its equilibrium value. The Hii et al. model was selected as the best model to describe the drying curves (R 2 >0.99). It provided a relatively accurate prediction between the requirements of moisture content and drying time. There were statistically significant differences (p<0.01) in the drying time at 10.0 and 1.0% moisture content level among the four temperature groups. The drying efficiency was significantly correlated to the mass of the soft parts. It was found that 100°C was an appropriate temperature to effectively dehydrate the fresh apple snails, whereas 60°C was not suitable when air velocity ≤0.5 m/s. This study explored an integrated approach to efficiently dehydrate snails for snail meal production, which will benefit both aquaculture and agriculture.