Thin Layer Drying Kinetics of Salt Water Crab (Cardisoma Guanhumi)

Abstract

Crab meat undergoes rapid microbial deterioration after death, placing it in the category of highly perishable sea foods (the Crayfish and lobsters alike) Thus, this affects its economic value. Drying is one of the techniques that will provide consumers with ready-to-use dried crabmeat to incorporate into daily meals such as soups, sauces, and so on. This study thus, investigated the drying behavior of the crab on thin-layers. A laboratory convective oven dryer was used as the heating source, on the temperature (range of 60 - 100°C) applied in a varying manner on multiples of 10℃. The layer thickness was about 45-mm. as with high moisture sea foods, the drying profile showed a typical falling rate period with no distinct constant rate period for all the temperature levels used in this work. Moisture loss (diffusion) data obtained from the experiments were fitted to three popular semi-empirical thin-layer models of Lewis, Henderson-Pabis, and Page, and their suitability was validated using statistical parameters such as Root Mean Square,( R2), X2 and RSME. This was done to select thin-layer model that would suitably describe the drying kinetics of the samples over the range of temperature levels chosen in this work. Consequently, the Henderson-Pabis model and that of Page model were taken to have reliably predicted the drying behavior of the samples at the chosen temperature levels.