Effect of blanching-brine-calcium pretreatment on red chili pepper drying

Abstract

The red chili pepper drying aims to remove moisture content up to 11% (wet basis). Dried chilies can be easy to distribute and have longer shelf life because it can be protected from decaying by enzymatic and microbial activity. Pretreatment in drying is one of alternative to decrease drying time. This present study was carried out on effect of blanching-brine-calcium pretreatment toward drying kinetics in chili. In this case, chili provided from the local market was pretreated with blanching, dehydrated osmotic with brine, calcium dipping pretreatment and combination of them. The chili products were dried in tray dryer at 40°C, 50°C, 60°C and 70°C for 8 hours afterward. Result showed that Lewis model is suitable drying model. The blanching-brine-calcium pretreated chili can be well and faster dried with activation energy was 36.4290 kJ/mol and k0 was 7.8712. At 70°C, red chili pepper needed 6.467 hours todry. Thus, the blanching-brine-calcium pretreatment can be potential to reduce the energy cost for drying as well as retain the quality.