DRYING BEHAVIOR AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF OSMOTICALLYDEHYDRATED TURMERIC (Curcuma longa L.)

The study was conducted to determine the drying behavior and sensory analysis of osmotically dehydrated turmeric slices. The samples were subjected to three different temperatures (30±2,40±2° &50±2°C) of osmotic solution with 70°Bx sucrose concentration at a constant 1,000 rpm agitation condition until EMC was attained. The samples were then further dried using an oven dryer to reach a stable state. A food processor was used to finely grind the samples for sensory evaluation. The study was analyzed using analysis of variance in a completely randomized design. From an initial moisture content of 73.06-75.30%, the osmotic solution has reduced the moisture content to 64.91-69.34%. However, solids also increased to 22.07-29.91%. The mass transfer and goodness of fit were evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R2), chi-squared test (x2), mean bias error test, and root mean square error test. It was found that the Page model was the best fit for the data for both moisture loss and solid gain. In regard to the effect of temperature on drying behavior, the temperature was found to have a significant effect on drying constant for both moisture loss and solid gain. In the sensory evaluation of samples, it was found that the treatments do not have any significant difference in both tea and powder form in all parameters examined. Treatment 3 (50±2°C) obtained the highest rating in both powder and tea form and was deemed to be the most acceptable among all treatments.