Abstract: (5829 Views)
Osmotic dehydration is one of the drying methods that have been considered in recent years. Water and solute transfer through process can be determined by the percentage of water loss (WL) and solid gain (SG). In this study, image processing technique has been used to analyse osmotic dehydration of potato and determining the amount of water loss that is the main parameter in this process. Experiments performed for two different solutions (15 wt% salt and mixture of 35 wt% sucrose and 10 wt% salt) and three temperature levels at 35, 45 and 55 ° C. Water loss estimated from changes in samples volume; Sample’s volumes determined using image processing of pictures from different sides of samples at the start of process and at the end of it. Experimental results obtained from the osmotic dehydration of potatoes can be summarized as: the amount of water loss increased with increasing temperature; using a mixture of salt and sucrose as osmotic medium gets more water loss comparing use of salt as an osmotic agent in solution. The overall results of the image processing indicate that the approach used in this study can be reached acceptable data; While the pace of work is much more than the conventional methods.
Received: 2015/05/18 | Accepted: 2015/12/19 | Published: 2016/09/22