Study On dehydration of Papaya Slices Using Osmotic Dehydration Mediated Hot Air Oven Drying

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables are rich source of minerals and vitamins. India's diverse climate ensures availability of all varieties of fresh fruits & vegetables. It ranks second in fruits and vegetables production in the world, after China.Among all despite large acreage of land devoted to papaya the fruit loss is reported to be between 40-100% of total annual produce.Alone in Andhra Pradesh the total production of fruit is 1173.6 thousand MT.Post-harvest losses are attributed to mechanical damage, rapid flesh softening, decay, physiological disorders, pest infestation, and improper temperature management and storage which results in greater loss.To reduce these losses many methods were discovered among which Osmotic dehydration has received greater attention in recent years as an effective method for preservation of fruits and vegetables which is being a simple process, facilitates processing of fruits and vegetables with retention of initial fruit characteristics viz., colour, aroma, texture and nutritional composition. Hence, the present work is undertaken to study the influence of osmotic dehydration aided with subsequent dehydration in dryer on the rehydration property of papaya slices. The study was carried out with treatment of papaya slices with sucrose solution as osmotic agent at 50,55,60⁰brix at 50⁰C temperature with immersion timing 30min followed by further dehydration in dryer at 70⁰C temp. The result obtained showed that a product osmo- treated at 60⁰brix at 50⁰C temp shows the better rehydration property along with better nutrient retention, texture, colour, taste and overall acceptability.