Performance Evaluation and Process Optimization of Potato Drying using Hot Air Oven

Abstract

The effect of various process parameters on drying behavior of Potato (Solanum tuberosum) was studied, and the optimization of process parameters based on quality was investigated. Experiments were conducted to characterize the drying behavior of Potato cubes at various temperatures, potato cube sizes and blanching chemical treatments. The various drying models were evaluated for their suitability and Midilli's model was found to be best describing the drying characteristics of Potato cubes. A full second order model was developed for all the response variables, viz. Rehydration ratio, shrinkage percentage and mean sensory scores of overall acceptability and found to be significant at 1% level of significance. The effect of process variables was investigated at individual, linear, interactive and quadratic levels for each response. The data was optimized by 'Design Expert 7.0' for all the responses. Compromise optimum level of process variables for the responses were 80°C (1), 1cm cube size (-0.87) & KMS (0). The corresponding values of the responses were 4.584, 24.979 & 5.000 respectively.