Mass Transfer Considerations in the Osmotic Dehydration of Apples

Abstract The osmotic dehydration of apples using a circulation system is described in terms of mass transfer concepts, where the parameters investigated were the loss of water and the gain of sugar. It was found that the loss of water was influenced by the temperature and the °Brix of the osmotic agent. The sugar gain reached a maximum after 30 min dehydration time and remained constant for the rest of the processing time. A mathematical model for this phenomena was proposed and it was found to correlate highly with the experimental data. The apparent diffusion coefficient D was evaluated and multilinear analysis revealed that D depended on temperature and °Brix in addition to a combined effect of both parameters.