OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF WHITE RADISH (Raphanus Sativus L.) SLICES: MASS TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS AND MODELING

Abstract

White radish sliced at 4 mm thickness was dehydrated by traditional osmotic dehydration (TOD) with nine types of osmotic solutions prepared by a randomized combining three levels concentration of sucrose and sodium chloride. The mass transfer characteristics were evaluated through the moisture diffusivity (D_m) and solid diffusivity (D_s), the fit of model was also estimated based on three popular models, including Newton, Henderson, and Pabis and Weibull. The results showed that white radish had the highest D_m and D_s value in the 4% salt and 15% sucrose solution, which presented that the fastest transfer process occurred in this solution. In addition, the Weibull model was the best model due to the highest R² and the lowest root mean square error and chi-square, which means this model could fully describe the mass transfer (moisture/solid transfer) behavior of white radish.