ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE VISHWAVIDYALAYA

UTD BILASPUR (C.G.)

PRACTICAL ON
Microwave Drying of fruits like Apple, Banana and Sugar
Beet

DEPARTMENT – FOOD PROCESSING AND

TECHNOLOGY

BATCH – M.Sc. 3rd SEMESTER

Submitted to:-
Mrs. Rewa Kulshrestha Mam
Submitted by:-
Shreya Ghosh
& Shreya kesharwani
 MICROWAVE DRYING OF FRUITS (APPLE)
Introduction:-
Microwave drying is a process in which electromagnetic waves interact directly with ionic
particles and dipolar molecules, causing excitation and friction among them, generating heat
and raising temperature rapidly.Microwave drying of fruits is a time and energy operative
method and can enhance food standards .This method has also been combined with hot air,
vacuum, freeze drying and applied in numerous drying practices .
A microwave drying of fruit at a constant temperature usually follows a typical drying curve.
In the middle drying stage, moisture is rapidly removed, large amount of aroma is lost, and
charring often occurs Also, ‘Puffing’ usually happens in this stage, causing quality damage
and undesirable changes in the food texture .
With the implementation of an instant power control, a new microwave drying system was
developed . The developed system can automatically and continuously adjust the power
levels, control the product temperature, and measure the samples’ mass online. Hence it can
be replaced by typical drying curves according to one’s expectation by adaptively adjusting
drying temperatures.

Principle:-
 to investigate the characteristics of drying curve variations with respect to drying
temperatures
 to change the drying curve in the middle stage to improve drying effects
 to develop a simplified temperature control method where mass measurement can be
omitted

Materials and methods

Microwave drying system:-
 A domestic microwave oven (maximum power output of 600W)
 porous Teflon plate in one layer( for dehydration)
 Electric balance (located on the top of the oven for mass measurement)
 Fiber optical sensor( inserted in the center of one of the cubic apple samples for
temperature measurement)
 PC (to control and record by a data acquisition card )
 A LabView program (was developed to realize power control, mass reading,
temperature monitoring and control)
 Apple fruit(used as a sample)
Samples preparation
Apple taken & its initial moisture content was around 87% (w.b.).

cut into 10 x 10 x 10 mm cubes with a cutting machine

Blanched in hot water at 80°C for 1 min before drying to vanquish enzymatic reaction

Cubic samples of 40 g were used in each experiment and were dried to around 10% moisture
content (w.b.).

Experimental procedures
Four different types of drying systems were tried for apples drying.
The output power of the microwave oven was 300W with on–off operations to maintain the
preset temperatures for all experiments.
Drying mode 1
Apple samples were dried at fixed temperatures of 30, 40, 50,
60, 70, 80 °C. The temperature of the samples and power used were
recorded each second. By summing up the power used in every
second, the total energy consumptions were obtained

Drying mode 2
The apple samples were dried according to an expected drying
curve, where moisture content of the sample was linearly
decreased from 7.0 to 1.0 (d.b.) in 120 min. The moisture content
change was controlled by adjusting drying temperature proportionally
according to the difference of preset and actual moisture
The 50C was selected because all quality aspects achieved good results at this temperature
and the consumed energy and time were all in accepted middle
 values, as indicated by the drying result of mode one. The maximum
temperature was limited to 75 C and the minimum was limited
to 25 C during drying process to protect the products and to
speed up the drying process respectfully

Drying mode 3
In this mode, a similar but simpler temperature curve was designed to
simulate the previously obtained temperature profile and apple
was dried following this temperature curve, i.e., temperature was
increased linearly from 25 to 50° C in 120 min, and kept at 50 °C
thereafter. The temperature, drying curve and power were also recorded as before.

Drying mode 4
It is a 3-step mode, apple was dried first at 30°C for 60 min,
then the temperature was set to 40°C for another
60 min, and finally the temperature was kept at 50° C for
the rest of the drying stage until the 10% moisture content (w.b.) was reached.
Also, online mass measurement and moisture content calculation were all omitted.

Quality assessment
 A chromameter with a 5 mm diameter measuring area was used for surface color
measurements.
 The L⁄ coordinate ranged from 0 (black) to 100 (white), the a⁄ coordinate indicated
red-green color, and the b⁄ coordinate indicated yellow-blue color.
 Measurements were conducted in triplicates and mean values were reported.
 Color parameters were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA).
 Differences were estimated by Duncan’s multiple range test and identified as
significant or non-significant at a = 0.05 level.
 Sensory evaluation in terms of overall appearance, taste and textural consistency was
conducted by a taste panel of ten untrained judges (five males and five females, age
 20–50, students and staffs in food engineering) to acquire the preliminary information
of consumers’ preference and acceptance.
 Five gram samples were given to each panelist after color measurements on the same
day that the samples were dehydrated.
 Assessments were conducted at room temperature (20–22° C) under fluorescence
light.
 The judges were asked to indicate their preference for each sample

Result and Conclusion

 Microwave drying of apples at any constant temperature cannot balance the time,
energy, and quality requirements.
 Drying apples with a drying curve which followed a pre-designed linear line could
improve product quality, save time and energy in a single process.
 A gradually increasing temperature (from 25 to 50° C) in the beginning and middle
drying stages could achieve a nearly linear drying curve, while real time curve control
was omitted.
 A 3-step temperature control (30, 40, and 50°C) could also improve the drying effects
and greatly simplify the control system.
 Hence, a controlled drying curve and drying temperature are always recommended in
microwave drying practices.
 Microwave Drying of Banana
Introduction:-
Banana is one of the important high sugar containing tropical fruit crops grown commercially
in many countries which is very susceptible to deterioration and considerable amounts of this
fruit is wasted due to the lack of best preservation techniques that are unique to banana.
Drying is one of the oldest methods of food preservation and it is a difficult food processing
operation mainly because of undesirable changes in quality of the dried product. High
temperatures and long drying times,required to remove the water from the sugar containing
fruit material in conventional air drying, may cause serious damage to the flavour, colour,
nutrients, reduction in bulk density and rehydration capacity of the dried product
Microwave drying is rapid, more uniform and energy efficient compared to conventional hot
air drying. In this case, the removal of moisture is accelerated and, furthermore, heat transfer
to the solid is slowed down significantly due to the absence of convection.
It has also been suggested that microwave energy should be applied in the falling rate period
or at a low moisture content for drying The reason for this is essentially economic. Due to
high cost, microwave cannot compete with conventional air drying. However, microwaves
may be advantageous in the last stages of air drying.

Principle :-
 Microwaves are electromagnetic waves in the frequency range of 300 MHz to 300
GHz (equivalent to a wavelength of 1±0.01 m), generated by a magnetron type
vacuum tube.
 Electromagnetic energy at 915 and 2450 MHz can be absorbed by water containing
materials or other ``lossy'' substances, such as carbon and some organics, and
converted to heat.
 Because the waves can penetrate directly into the material, heating is volumetric
(from the inside out) and provides fast and uniform heating throughout the entire
product.
 The quick energy absorption by water molecules causes rapid evaporation of water
(results in higher drying rates of the food),creating an outward flux of rapidly
escaping vapour.
 In addition to improving the rate of drying, this outward flux can help to prevent the
shrinkage of tissue structure, which prevails in most conventional air drying
techniques.
 Hence better rehydration characteristics may be expected in microwave dried
products.
 In recent years, microwave drying has gained popularity as an alternative drying
method for a wide variety of food products such as fruits, vegetables, snack foods and
dairy products.
  Several food products have been successfully dried by the microwave-vacuum
application and/or by a combined microwave assisted-convection process.

The objectives of this study are to: -

(1) compare drying characteristics, colour and rehydration of banana samples dried by hot air,
microwave and hot air followed by a microwave finish drying.
(2)To determine the drying constants, using a simple difusion model and assess the effect of
selected parameters such as drying temperature, sample thickness and microwave power.

Materials and Equipments:

Material:-
 Ripe bananas with an initial moisture content of 3.1 kg H2O/kg dry solids were
obtained from a local supermarket and stored at 0.5 to 4 °C.
 4:3 ; 7:4 ; 14 mm thick and 30 mm diameter slices with a cutting machine.
 At least 10 measurements of the thickness were made at different points with a dial
micrometer.

Drying equipment:-
 A programmable domestic microwave oven with maximum output of 700 W at 2450
MHz. was used.
 Pilot plant tray dryer consisted of a proportional (P) controller controlling the
temperature.

Method:-
•Raw bananas are washed, peeled and cut into uniform size before using for drying.

•Banana slices are then placed in microwave safe glass dish and is placed in
microwave cavity having turntable, in which proper drying is done. The presence of
turntable is necessary to achieve The optimum oven performance and to reduce the
level of reflected microwave on to the magnetron.

•The sample is dried with different microwave power (350, 490 & 700 W ) and time
in order to reach dried condition.

•The weight of sample is taken after every 30s to 1 min. using weighing balance, in
order to find moisture loss.

•The sample is dried until it reaches minimum moisture content level have equal
weight. When the sample reached a constant weight, equilibrium moisture content
was assumed to be reached.
 •Attention was paid to ensure that the sample was not burned.

Result :-
The total driving time required to reach A final moisture content of about 0.1 kg
H2O /kg dry solids where 13, 18 and 27 min at 700, 490 and 350 W, respectively
These results show that the drying time of sample in microwave is less than other
convection drying methods. The result indicated that mass transfer within the sample
is rapid during microwave heating because heat is generated within the sample,
creating a large vapour pressure differential between the center and surface of
products.
Aim: Microwave Drying of sugar beet.

Introduction
Sugar beets (B. vulgaris L. ssp. vulgaris) are members of the family Amaranthaceae.
The root of the beet contains 75% water, about 20% sugar, and 5% pulp. The exact
sugar content can vary between 12% and 21% sugar, depending on the cultivar and
growing conditions.

Principle:

Drying increases the storage stability of fruits and vegetables making them available
throughout the year. Drying products also play a great role in processed foods of all
kinds (i.e., in soups) and ways to achieve high quality dehydrated products are
desired. New techniques like infrared processing, microwave, radio frequency, and
ohmic heating processes are developed to achieve the same. Drying with the
microwave method is a modern, efficient method of food preservation. During
Microwave drying processes, the heating period is relatively short and moisture loss is
small.

Microwave drying presents the following advantages over conventional thermal

heating drying methods:

Speed of heating (time saving), uniform volumetric heating, self regulating and
automatic system, higher efficiency, lower cost of processing (low energy
consumption) and compatibility with conventional heating.

Materials required: Beet, microwave, microwave safe dish, weighing balance, knife,
desiccator, etc.

Microwave basically consists of an electric heater & cooling fan, temperature was
controlled by the temperature sensor automatically. Microwave frequency was 2450
MHz and power was kept 160 W for all drying experiments.

Methods :

•Sugar beet were brought and stored at 3-4°C for about one day for equilibration of
moisture and then used for the experiments.
•The initial and final moisture contents of the sample were determined according to
the standard oven drying method.
•The initial moisture content of beet for all samples was found to be 89 (%, wb).
•Experiments were performed at 100 to 150°C.
•The sample was cut uniformly with the help of stainless steel chopper or knife.
•Weight loss of samples was measured by means of weighing balance after 10 minute
interval.
•The drying process was stopped when the moisture content decreased to minimum 8-
10% (w.b.) from an initial value of 89.53 ± 0.5% (w.b.).
•The product was cooled for 15 minutes after drying, and kept in desiccators.
•Drying tests were replicated three times at each temperature, and averages are
reported.

Results:
Influence of temperature
The effect of six temperatures on the drying curve of Beet is shown in figures. It can
be seen that there is no constant rate dying period in the drying of beet. All the drying
of beet takes place in the falling rate period.

Drying rate
The decrease in drying rate with the period of drying was non-linear.
The drying process of a high moisture food consists of two drying rate periods:
constant rate period and falling rate period. With regard to the drying curves falling
rate period took place in all the drying process of beet.

Conclusion
Microwave convection drying can greatly reduce the drying time of food materials
with internal resistance to mass transfer. The microwave convection drying proved
better than the other method in terms of reduced drying time and lower final moisture
content, as per the results obtained.
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