Properties of pears dried with different drying processes.

• Autor(es): Guiné, Raquel ; Barroca, Maria João ; Lopes, Paulo ; Silva, Vitor ; Lima, Maria João ; Ferreira, Dulcineia
• Data: 2010
• Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/1334
• Origem: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu
• Assunto(s): Pear; Chemical properties
• Tipo de Documento: Documento de conferência
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

Pears of S. Bartolomeu variety have been used over the years in Portugal to produce a traditional dried pear using the cheapest practice with environmental friendly characteristics: open-sun drying. However, the obvious disadvantages concerning the drying efficiency and safety of the dried product have been an incentive to design or improve solar drying methods as an alternative to the traditional one. The present work has tested three types of drying processes, namely solar stove, solar drying and tunnel drying. In addition, the efficiency of drying and the properties of the dried pears were compared with the traditional dried fruits. The results of the tests have allowed us to conclude that all methods have lead to a considerable reduction in drying time as compared to open-sun drying. Indeed, the drying time for the solar stove and the solar dryer showed a reduction of 40% while in the drying tunnel this reduction increased to 60%. In addition, it was also possible to conclude that the properties of the dried pears obtained by the three processes correspond to a dried fruit similar to the traditional dried pears. Thus, based on these results, it can be inferred that the traditional sun drying at open-air can be replaced by either of the processes tested in the present study, which, allow a higher drying efficiency associated to a higher safety of the dried food, while maintains the properties of the traditional food product.