Tomate em pó obtido pela secagem convectiva : avaliação do processo de secagem e do produto final

Abstract

Post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables are high in Brazil and worldwide. Approximately 35 to 40% of production is discarded. Despite having great representativeness in the vegetable sector, the tomato is a highly perishable fruit due to its large amount of water. One of the viable alternatives to reduce and waste is processing through drying. This makes perishable products more stable, being able to use substandard tomatoes and making them suitable for consumption. The objective was to evaluate the influence of different temperatures (combination of 100/65 ° C; 85 ° C, 75 ° C; 65 ° C) and types of cut (4 and 8 slices) on drying kinetics and powder quality of tomato. The drying process was evaluated in relation to the drying rate (time x moisture content) and mass loss (%) without time being quantified at the end or in the yield. The quality of the powder used was evaluated by granulometry, color, total soluble solids content (° Brix), pH and solubility. Through the obtained curves it was verified that the drying of the tomato in the combination of temperature of 100/65 ° C sliced in 8 parts occurred in less time than the other treatments (500 minutes). The powder cut in the tomato cut in more slices shows the finer granulometry, independent of the drying temperature. A tomato powder obtained from drying at 65 ° C, had less darkening. The rehydrated tomato powder that had a greater amount of ° Brix was obtained from dried tomato at 75 ° C. There was less change in pH on drying by the combination 100/65 and 65 ° C, both in the geometry of cutting 4 slices. The powder showed good solubility, with values above 99%. Tomato powder had an average yield of 5.82%.