Drying Kinetic of Oven and Cabinet Dried Red Date Fruit

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of pre-treatment technique (blanching) and temperature on the drying characteristics of the red date variety. Thin layer drying experiments were conducted at varying drying temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C using electrical laboratory oven and cabinet dryer with a constant air velocity of 1.4 m/s. Other sets of samples were blanched at 50 °C for 2-, 5- and 10-minutes before being dried at varying drying temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C respectively under the same drying conditions. The drying process took place mainly in the falling rate period indicating that the mechanism that governed moisture movement in the samples was diffusion. The drying curve showed that blanched red date fruits had higher drying rate than the un-blanched samples. The result is useful for farmers, researchers, and the processing industry in designing a reliable machine for processing red date fruit which will boost the small and medium scale production of the fruit in Nigeria.