Drying involves four main transport phenomena: internal and external heat transfer, and internal and external mass transfer. However, the numerical solution of the corresponding four classical partial differential equations requires considerable computing time (Karathanos & Belessiotis, 1999). Researches frequently use simple models to simulate the food drying curves that can adequately represent experimental results (Akpinar et al., 2003, Doymaz,

2004, Iguaz et al., 2003, Senadeera et al., 2003 and Sogi et al., 2003). Trichostatin A price In this study, the mass transfer process will be defined as a function of Fick’s law combined with the microscopic mass transfer balance. It should be noted that the production and consumption of West Indian cherry have increased selleck kinase inhibitor in Brazil, and that there is a real possibility for Brazil to export this fruit. Therefore, it is even more important to carry out research on this fruit and to developed alternative processing technologies. The main objective of this work was to study water loss, solid gain, and weight and moisture reduction in West Indian cherry during the osmotic dehydration process, using real average moisture contents to estimate the diffusion coefficient of West Indian Cherry based on the inverse method. This paper describes

the internal changes and the kinetics of moisture change and moisture transfer during the osmotic dehydration of West Indian cherry. Fresh West Indian cherry (M. punicifolia L.) and chemicals products were purchased in a local www.selleck.co.jp/products/AG-014699.html market in João Pessoa (Paraíba, Brazil). The fruits were selected visually based on their similar degree of ripeness (same skin color), apparent fruit quality (flawlessness), firmness, and similar size. The fruit’s average radius was approximately 8.5 mm. The sample’s dimensions were

measured with a Vernier caliper (SOMET) with 0.05 mm precision. The average initial moisture content determined after blanching was 91.7 kg kg−1 on a wet basis, determined by heating in a drying oven (LUFERCO, model 41181) at 65 °C for 24 h, following the 2002 AOAC method. Other materials used in this work were obtained in the same period in a local market too. The initial soluble solid content determined by refractometry was 6.30°Brix. The water activity of the West Indian cherry (aw = 0.989) was measured after blanching at final dehydration time using a dew-point hygrometer (Decagon C-X2, Aqualab, USA, with 0.001 precision) at 27 °C. Prior to their osmotic dehydration, the West Indian cherries were weighed and then blanched in boiling water for 1 min in order to increase the water permeability of the skin, followed by immediate cooling in a mixture of water and ice for 1 min to remove excess heat. After blanching, the fruits were drained on absorbent paper to remove excess water, weighed again, and immersed in an osmotic solution.