Impact of drying methods on the changes of fruit microstructure unveiled by X-ray micro-computed tomography

Abstract

with radiation heating). Drying conditions affected the microstructure noticeably, in particular the formation of an elevated-porosity layer (tissue region where the porosity was higher than the initial porosity) and a deformed-cell layer (tissue region where the sphericity of the cells was lower than 0.75) near the sample surface. Using the combination of Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches, we linked the formation of the aforementioned layers to bulk shrinkage and deformation of individual cells. Forced convective drying resulted in a more porous structure and a higher degree of cell deformation compared to the other drying cases. Meanwhile, the coupled irradiation-convective drying induced the largest bulk shrinkage. The latter was caused by a large reduction in pore volume and the formation of large cell clusters in the deformed-cell layer.