Drying rate and quality attributes of foam-mat dried tomato pulp

Abstract

Introduction. Tomato is a short duration fruit that deteriorates easily after harvest, hence the need to process it using foam-mat drying as a technique, to produce tomato with good quality and investigate some process parameters (foaming agent and foam stabilizer concentration) that can influence drying rate and quality of the dried powder. Materials and Methods. Randomized complete block design was used with about 27 samples of tomato pulp using egg white as foaming agent at 3 levels of concentration 5%, 10% and 15% and carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) at 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.8% the whipping time at 3 minutes and the samples were dried in a cabinet dryer at 70 degrees C. Results and Discussion. The result show that the mean for samples treated with foaming agent concentration at 5%, 10% and 15% had drying rates of 19.21 g/hr, 21.53 g/hr and 20.46 g/hr, protein content of 24.66%, 24.72% and 24. 77% and vitamin C content of 1.70%, 1.44% and 1.34% respectively while those treated with CMC concentration at 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.8% had drying rates of 18.74 g/hr, 20.68 g/hr and 21.78 g/hr, protein content of 24.71%, 24.71% and 24.74% and vitamin C content of 1.43%, 1.56% and 1.49% respectively. Analysis of Variance shows that foaming agent and foam stabilizer concentration had no significant effect on drying rate at P