A method for continuous kinetic evaluation of osmotic dehydration

A method to determine the kinetics of osmotic dehydration was developed. The method involves the measurement of weight loss in a single sample and its final moisture at the end of the process. The method was tested in the osmotic dehydration of apple disks of 4.6 cm diam eter and 0.4 cm thickness. Temperature was set at 30 °C and a drying solution containing 500 g sucrose/kg was used. The results showed that dispersion of the experimental points was worse when several samples were used to measure average weight loss (14.8%) than when the continuous method was employed (3.9%). The continuous method is useful to predict variations of the final moisture with respect to drying time.