Optimization of the Novel Vacuum Drying Process’s Parameters on the Dragon Fruit Chips

Abstract

Agricultural product processing technology, especially fruit and vegetable drying technology, has been researched and applied to preserve food. For dragon fruit, vacuum drying technology is being applied to process chips that meet the quality requirements. However, the flow of steam from the lower layers sticking to the upper layers in the drying chamber not only reduces the quality uniformity between the product layers but also increases the drying time. Therefore, in this study, the vacuum drying system integrated with the moisture-dissipating walls was proposed. Moreover, the research also applied the Taguchi method to optimize the drying parameters for moisture content of dried products.