Effect of different pretreatments in solar dried tomato (Solomon lycopersicum [manuscript]
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Date
2019
Authors
Kristine Marilou O. Ramos.
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Abstract
Without application of pretreatments when drying of fruits can often result to darkening of the product after operation. Thus, the study focused on the effects of sodium metabisulfite, sodium benzoate and honey in solar dried tomato. The specific objectives were to determine the drying characteristics of tomato using different pretreatments; to conduct a sensory evaluation in dried tomato; and determine the water activity of the dried tomato.
Drying were done using a Multi-Commodity Solar Tunnel Dryer. The drying characteristics, physical attributes and water activity of dried tomato were studied at different pretreatments. For drying characteristics, the samples were dried for 2 days with a total of 12 hours. The temperature inside the multi-commodity solar tunnel dryer starts to rise at 10:00 AM and hit its peak at 12:00 NN, at 2:00 PM the temperature starts to decline. The samples were weighed every 30-minute interval. For determining the physical attributes, surface color change was measured using color meter while sensory evaluation was conducted to define the overall acceptability and degree of likeness in terms of color, aroma, taste and texture. Water acitvity was measured and analyzed in CLSU-AFTBI laboratory using a water activity meter. The ideal pretreatment was based on the results of drying characteristics, physical attributes and water activity.
The study was laid out following the Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD). Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Comparison Among Means (CAM) was done using Least Significant Difference (LSD) at 5% level of significance.
Samples pretreated with sodium benzoate gave the highest drying rate of 1.64 gwater/gsolid per hour. Results revealed that samples pretreated with sodium metabisulfite of 3,4843. For the sensory evaluation, samples pretreated with honey shows better results than the other treatments of 5.62 for overall acceptability, 6.54 for degree of likeness on aroma, degree of likeness on taste with 5.60, and honey has the highest mean value for the degree of liness on texture with 5.34. All water activity of different pretreatments fall under the safe range.