Resumen de Strawberries hybrid drying combining airflow, dic technology andintermittent microwaves
E. Amami, C. Besombes, N. Kechaou, K. Allaf
1-cm strawberry slices were partially airflow-dried at 50 °C, to reach 0.25 gH2O/g db. Optimized DIC treatment was performed at 350 kPa for 10 s. Thefinal drying stage of these DIC-expanded slices was achieved from 0.25 to 0.1g H2O/g db (dry basis) using intermittent Pulsed Micro-Wave Drying PMWD to prevent from the paradoxical step of coupled conduction heat transfer with deep generation and transfer of vapor. PMWD was defined at constant 100 Wfor 3.25±0.05 g with constant active time ton maintained at 2 s, and temperingtime toff ranged between 2 and 10 s, or with a continuous way. By decreasingboth energy consumption and total drying time of DIC-expanded slices using intermittent microwave, the whole cost significantly decreased to be much lower than the conventional MWD drying, with a great increasing of the quality.
