Effect of pre-treatments and drying methods on Moisture percentage of dried Tomato Slices

Abstract

A study was undertaken the effect of pretreatments and drying methods on quality parameters of tomato slices with respect to storage using two factors as treatments i.e. 5 pre-treatment levels (P1-Peeled by hot water dip blanching, P2-Peeled by hot brine dip blanching, P3-Unpeeled by hot water blanching, P4-Unpeeled by hot brine blanching, P5-Control- No peeled and no blanched) and 2 drying methods i.e. (D1-Tray drying, D2-Sun drying) with completely randomized design of factorial concept with three repetitions at Post Graduate Laboratory of Horticulture Department, College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. The quality was evaluated on the basis of physicochemical (i.e. drying time (h) and moisture content (%) at 1, 20, 40, 60 and 80th day of storage. Result of study depicts that the pretreatment P2 i.e. peeling of tomato by hot brine dip blanching followed by tray drying (D2) recorded minimum (14.50 h) drying time and the minimum changes in moisture content (4.00%-6.54%) observed in treatment P1 at 1st to 80th day of storage, respectively.