The effect of osmotic pretreatment on the density of hot-air-dried carrot

Consumption of large amounts of fruits and vegetables throughout the world, have encouraged the development of various methods for their processing. Drying is considers as the most common method for preservation of vegetable and fruits. Although drying extend the shelf-life, it has various side effects on keeping quality of these foods; including decreasing of the color and texture quality as well as missing the flavor and nutritional values. These negative effects have increased the demand for the discovering the alternative drying methods and consequently for the production of fresh-like products. The aim of this study was to introduce and optimize the novel method for the drying of carrot as well as to develop and optimize the quality of osmo-airdried carrots with special respect to the color, flavor, texture, rehydration properties, density and shriveling of the product. For this, the effect of osmotic pretreatment on the density of carrot slices wasinvestigated, using 50% glucose syrup +5% salt at 40°C with 150 rpm, followed by complementary drying step. The result of treated group was compared with control samples which were dried only by hot-air-drier. The results showed that using osmotic pretreatment could increase the density through inhibition of the product's shrinkage. Meanwhile, in airdried samples the density was decreased considerably and high shrinkage was also observed.