DRYING BEHAVIOR AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF OSMOTICALLY DEHYDRATED TOMATO（Solanum lycopersicum)

The study aimed to investigate the drying behavior of tomatoes after osmotic dehydration and the sensory evaluation of the product after further drying. The tomatoes were osmotically pre-treated by sugar solution concentration of 70°Brix at osmotic temperatures of 40±2℃,50±2℃ and 60±2°C respectively at constant agitation conditions of 1000 rpm. The ratio of fruit to the solution was kept at 1:10 (45 grams: 450 grams) and further drying process duration of 360 minutes at 60°C. The present study demonstrated that water loss and the solid gain rate increased with the increase of osmotic solution temperature and time duration. Mass transfer kinetics of osmotically dehydrated tomatoes were predicted based on the three drying models; the Newton model, the Page model, and the Henderson-Pabis model. The Page model showed the best fit for both water loss and solid gain whereas Newton's model best described the coefficient of determination on moisture loss during osmotic dehydration. After the osmotic process, the result showed that moisture loss and solid gain were obtained in the range of 91%-94% and 4% to 5.53%-7.7. Overall, osmotically dehydrated samples were evaluated using their sensory attributes. It was found that Treatment 3 with the highest osmotic solution temperature of 60±2°C was the most acceptable among the three treatments.