Osmotic Dehydration Kinetics of Pumpkin Fruits Using Ternary Solutions of Sodium Chloride and Sucrose

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Abstract
The objective of this work was to obtain experimental data and modeling of osmotic dehydration kinetics of pumpkin fruits (Cucurbita pepo L.) with aqueous NaCl/sucrose solutions. For this purpose, effective diffusion coefficients for water, sucrose, and NaCl were calculated by means of a simple model based on Fick's second law. Water loss achieved 80%, sucrose 13%, and NaCl 6% of the initial sample weight. Effective diffusion coefficients ranged from 0.58–1.40 × 10−9 m2/s, 0.75–1.23 × 10−9 m2/s, and 2.60–4.11 × 10−9 m2/s for water, sucrose, and NaCl, respectively. The proposed model gave a good correlation of the experimental data. The quality of the operation was evaluated by analysis of the values of WL/SG ratio.

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