OPTIMIZATION OF THE OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF MANGO (MANGIFERA INDICAL.) SLICES

Authors:
  • PMPonciano S. Madamba
    Ponciano S. Madamba
  • RLRonaldo I. Lopez
    Ronaldo I. Lopez
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Abstract
Fresh mango (Mangifera indica) slices were osmotically dehydrated using four treatment variables: treatment time, temperature, sugar concentration and slice thickness. Treatment times for 2, 4 and 6 mm slice thickness were 3, 5 and 7 h at temperatures of 20, 30 and 40°C and sugar concentrations of 40, 50 and 60% (w/w). The responses variables tested were weight reduction (WR), sugar gain (SG), final moisture content (M f ) and overall product acceptability (OA). A fractional factorial design (3 level-4 parameter) with 27 runs was used as the experimental design. A Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was performed to analyze and predict the optimum conditions of the mango osmotic dehydration process. All treatment variables significantly affected WR, while SG and M f were significantly affected only by thickness. On the other hand, none of the variables showed no significant effect on the OA. The optimum conditions were determined with the following response limiting values: at least 30% WR, at lea...