Effect of infrared radiation (IR) pre-treatment on the freeze-drying of sea cucumber

Abstract

The effects of infrared radiation (IR) pre-treatment on the freeze-drying (FD) procedure and quality of products were investigated in this study. Fresh sea cucumbers were treated by using IR radiation at 5000 W/m2 or 10 000 W/m2 before FD procedure. And then 10 000W/ m2 was chosen to combine with FD to study drying rate during freeze-drying, and moisture, ash, protein, polysaccharide and saponin of fresh sea cucumber, FD sea cucumber, and FD sea cucumber assisted with IR were determined respectively. Results showed that the use of infrared short-wave rays could reduce the drying period and have no effect on the quality of the sea cucumber sample.