Physical properties of peanut kernels during drying

Abstract

The present study was accomplished with objective of evaluating the effect of drying on physical properties of peanut kernels. Kernels with initial moisture content of 0.56 decimal (dry weight basis) were dried at a temperature of 40 °C. Physical properties - bulk density, true density, intergranular porosity, thousand grain weight, sphericity, circularity, projected area, surface area and surface/volume ratio were determined. Based on these results, it is concluded that reducing the moisture content promotes reduction in all the physical properties of peanut kernels, except porosity and surface/volume ratio that have their values increased with the reduction of moisture content. The peanut kernels sphericity decreases during the drying process, while the circularity shows no definite trend in the values.