Influence of Infrared Drying on Drying Kinetics of Apple Slices Coated with Basil Seed and Xanthan Gums

Abstract

Edible coatings can guarantee the quality of agricultural products, and performance as a low oxygen barrier, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, allowing reducing water loss or controlling water adsorption. The objective of the current work was aimed to evaluate the effects of novel edible coatings based on basil seed and xanthan gums, and infrared (IR) drying efficiency of coated apple slices. Seven empirical thin-layer models were fitted to the moisture ratio data. It was found that Page model had the best fit to show the kinetic behavior and acceptably described the IR drying behavior of coated apple slices with the lowest mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and standard error (SE) values and the highest correlation coefficient (r) value. The values of MSE, RMSE and MAE for all experiments were in the ranges of 0.00014–0.00058, 0.012–0.024 and 0.009–0.021, respectively. The average drying time of uncoated apple slices, coated by xanthan gum and coated by basil seed gum were 48.00, 60.22, and 84.78 min, respectively. The average effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) of uncoated and coated apple slices with basil seed and xanthan gums increased from 1.70 × 10−9 m2/s to 4.45 × 10−9 m2/s with increasing IR lamp power from 150 W to 375 W.