Science Letters

Food Sciences | Research article

Effect of Potassium Metabisulphite and Temperature on Hot Air Drying of Dasheri Mango Slices

Mustapha Muhammad Nasiru 1, 2*, John Diamond Raj 1, Kailash Chandra Yadav 1

1 Department of Food Process Engineering, Vaugh School of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), Allahabad-211007, Uttar Pradesh, India

2 Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

Food products are pre-treated with chemicals to dry as quick as possible, retain product quality and minimize energy cost. In this study, the effect of temperature and potassium metabisulphite (KMS) pre-treatment on Dasheri mango slices dehydrated using hot air oven was studied. Three temperatures (50�C, 60�C and 70�C) and KMS pre-treatment levels (0.5%, 1% and 1.5%), as well as control samples, were used for the study. From the dehydrating curve, it was observed that the drying of the mango slices occurred on the falling rate stage. Around 5.5%-31.7% of the final moisture was achieved on dry weight basis in the mango slices and the drying time ranges from 390-690 min at all the drying temperatures and pre-treatment levels. The rehydration ratio of the mango slices ranged from 2.52 to 3.54 while dehydration ratio ranged from 4.180 to 5.483. The color of the mango slices was analyzed based on the Hunter color scale. The assayed results showed that L, a and b color parameters of the pre-treated samples vary significantly compared to the control samples. Thus, the optimum combination for the drying of Dasheri mango slices could be attained when dehydration takes place at 60�C with 1% KMS pre-treatment.