Abstract
The banana is one of the most consumed fruits in the world, but it has little shelf life due to its high water activity. Drying is able to increase shelf life and pre-treatments can optimize the process. The objective was to study the solar drying kinetics and evaluate the effect of pre-treatments on the drying kinetics and physico-chemical quality of 'Prata' bananas. The drying was carried out in a solar dryer and the pre-treatments consisted of immersing the samples in solutions of water, citric acid (1%) and lemon juice (10%). Water loss, drying kinetics, mathematical models and physical-chemical and colorimetric characteristics of fresh and dried bananas were evaluated. The drying rate was higher at the beginning and stabilized after 20 hours. The mathematical model of Midilli and Kucuk was the one that best fit the experimental data. The water content, ascorbic acid and the parameters L *, b *, C * and h ° reduced after drying. Reducing sugars and a * coordinate increased and the acidity was not changed with drying. The solar drying of 'Prata' bananas is a sustainable and economical way to make a product available with a longer shelf life.
Highlights
The banana is one of the most consumed fruits worldwide (Gomes et al, 2014)
Fresh and dehydrated bananas were evaluated: Water content (WC)- determined by dehydration in an electric oven (SOLAB ) at 70 °C until constant mass (Instituto Adolfo Lutz, 2008); Total titratable acidity (TA)- determined by titration with 0.1 N NaOH and 1% phenolphthalein alcohol as an indicator
The results were expressed in malic acid content (Instituto Adolfo Lutz, 2008); Ascorbic acid (AsA)- determined by the reduction of 2.6 dichlorophenolindophenol acid 0.2% and oxalic acid 0.5% as an extracting solution (Association of Official Analytical Chemists, 1997; Benassi & Antunes, 1998); Reducing sugars (RS)- determined by the reduction of glucose by the compound 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (Vasconcelos et al, 2013); Color- determined using the parameters luminosity (L), chroma (C) and hue (h) with the aid of a colorimeter (Konica Minolta, CR-10) previously calibrated on a white surface (Bible & Singha, 1997)
Summary
The banana is one of the most consumed fruits worldwide (Gomes et al, 2014). Its high consumption is due to its nutritional and energetic value, as it is rich in starch and sugar, vitamins A and C, potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium (Ranjha et al, 2020), in addition to the pleasant taste, coming from groups ester, alcohols and phenolic compounds (Saha et al, 2018). The high-water content is a critical factor that reduces the time of storage and transportation of fruits in general. Drying is a method capable of prolonging shelf life, reducing the weight for transportation, reducing storage space and controlling microbiological and enzymatic reactions responsible for the degradation of bananas (Ranjha et al, 2020). Drying provides a greater diversity of products, for example, bananas, powder, snacks and as part of breakfast cereals (Saha et al, 2018). Organic acids can be used to reduce enzymatic browning, decrease the unwanted intermediates formation and provide sucrose inversion, which guarantees greater sweetness and better technological properties to the product. The objective was to study the solar drying kinetics and the effect of pre-treatments on the physicochemical characteristics of dehydrated ‘Prata’ bananas
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