Return to search

Energetics of Home Dehydration; The Effect on Product Cost and Quality

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to compare different home dehydrators and determine if the operation and design of the home dehydrators affected the color, cost, nutrient content, acceptability or flavor of the resulting products and (2) to determine the effect of physical parameters on product color, nutrient content, acceptability and flavor. The physical parameters that were measured during the dehydration process were temperature, relative humidity, and mass flow rate of air. Two products, Daucus carota var sativa (carrot) and juice of Lycopersicon sp. (tomato), were dried in each of six dehydrators (treatments). A sensory panel was used to determine the color, acceptability and flavor differences in dehydrated carrots and tomato juice form the different treatments. Carotene and ascorbic acid content were determined in the carrots and tomato juice, respectively. The total cost of dehydration was calculated by summing the fresh produce cost, energy costs, equipment and cost of labor.
The design and operation of the five dehydrators designated for home use had significantly different effects on the cost, color, flavor, and acceptability of both carrots and tomato juice. Ascorbic acid content in dehydrated tomato juice production from the six dehydrators differed significantly, but, the carotene content of dehydrated carrots did not differ statistically between treatments.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-6306
Date01 May 1980
CreatorsWillis, Crystal A.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact digitalcommons@usu.edu.

Page generated in 0.0019 seconds