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Abstract
In this study, the drying kinetics and the effective water diffusivity Deff of tomato halves during oven drying were investigated. This study was carried out for three drying temperatures (45, 55, and 65°C) and for salted and non-salted samples. The Logarithmic model was chosen to describe the drying curves among seven single-layer drying models. The estimated drying parameters of the model were correlated with the drying temperatures using an Arrhenius type equation. The relaxation time ratio of the salted to non-salted tomato halves was 0.80 ± 0.08. The Deff values of tomato halves (salted and non-salted) were estimated with the method of slopes adopting an analytical solution of modified Fick's law. The estimated mean Deff values for non-salted tomato halves was 1.1 × 10-10, 1.9 × 10-10, and 3.2 × 10-10 m2 s-1 and for salted tomato halves was 1.3 × 10-10, 1.9 × 10-10, and 4.0 × 10-10 m2 s-1 at 45, 55 and 65°C considering the shrinkage effect. The estimated activation energy Ea of the salted tomato halves (56.3 kJ mol-1) was found to be approximately 20% higher than this of the non-salted tomato halves (46.8 kJ mol-1) and both were higher from cited Ea in the literature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the president of the general board of directors, Mr. Markos Kafouros, and the general manager, Mr. Dimopoulos Matthaios, of the Union of Santorini Cooperatives (SantoWines) for providing us consistently with fresh tomatoes throughout the experiments. Also, thanks go to Dr. J. L. Woods from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK for his useful suggestions.