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Radio Frequency-Vacuum Drying of Kiwifruits: Kinetics, Uniformity, and Product Quality

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Abstract

To overcome long drying time, low energy efficiency and poor product quality associated with conventional drying, a radio frequency (RF) vacuum technology is proposed for drying kiwifruit slices using a 27.12 MHz, 3 kW RF-vacuum drying system. The results demonstrated that the process variables, electrode gap, vacuum pressure, and sample thickness, had major effects on the RF-vacuum drying. The RF-vacuum drying was associated with internal heating and rapid drying resulting in 65% reduction of hot air drying (60 °C) time. Moreover, kiwifruits dehydrated by RF-vacuum drying were associated with better color stability, higher vitamin C retention, and higher rehydration capacity (p < 0.05) as compared with hot-air-dried samples. Based on acceptable drying rate, stable temperature and avoiding arcing, a RF-vacuum drying protocol with the electrode gap of 60 mm, vacuum pressure of 0.02 MPa, and sample thickness of 8 mm was identified. Despite some differences observed in individual fruit slices, the RF-vacuum drying technique achieved better and more uniform drying patterns among the samples. Overall, the RF-vacuum drying process may provide a more effective and practical method for high-quality dehydration of kiwifruits.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted in the College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University. The authors thank the technical assistance from Shuming Zhang, Rui Li, Shuang Zhang, Lihui Zhang, and Biying Lin for carrying out the experiments.

Funding

This research was supported by research grants from National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0400900, 2016YFD0401000), National Natural Science Foundation in China (No. 31772031), and Key Laboratory of Post-Harvest handling of fruits, Ministry of Agriculture (GPCH201703).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Xu Zhou, Ruzhen Xu, Beihua Zhang, Shaopei Pei, Qianqian Liu & Shaojin Wang

  2. Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, H9X 3V9, Canada

    Hosahalli S. Ramaswamy

  3. Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, 213 L.J. Smith Hall, Pullman, WA, 99164-6120, USA

    Shaojin Wang

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  1. Xu Zhou
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  2. Ruzhen Xu
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  3. Beihua Zhang
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  6. Hosahalli S. Ramaswamy
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Correspondence to Shaojin Wang.

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Zhou, X., Xu, R., Zhang, B. et al. Radio Frequency-Vacuum Drying of Kiwifruits: Kinetics, Uniformity, and Product Quality. Food Bioprocess Technol 11, 2094–2109 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-018-2169-3

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