Determination of characteristic parameters of the drying process of strawberries (Fragaria ananassa) applying kinetic models

Abstract

The intake of strawberries is a contribution of antioxidant compounds when it is incorporated into the human diet. However, it is a highly perishable fruit. Drying is an alternative to prolong the use of strawberries, reducing postharvest losses of biocompounds and facilitating transportation, due to cost reduction. The objective of this work was to dry strawberries and to model the drying kinetics, at 60°C, 70°C and 80°C in a dryer with forced air circulation. Five mathematical models were tested, through non-linear regressions. For all the proposed models, the goodness of fit of the experimental data was evaluated, using the coefficient of determination (R²) and the square root of the mean square error (RMSE). The effective diffusivity coefficient was also calculated. The model with the best fit was the Polynomial, followed by the Midili model and the generalized Exponential model. In these three cases, the R² values were greater than 0.96. The effective diffusivity coefficient obtained was within the expected values.