Degradation of Ascorbic Acid in Drying Process -a Comparison of Description Methods

The degradation kinetics of ascorbic acid in food products is presented in the paper. Vibrofluidized method of drying was considered. Experiments were carried out for a model substance (silica gel)and agricultural products, namely: fresh green peas, potatoes and cabbage. Experimental data were described by means of three mathematical methods: a multilayer perceptron (MLP) model, a mathematical model of degradation kinetics of ascorbic acid and a hybrid model. The hybrid model connects neural computation with the mathematical model. All approaches provide an excellent process description. In the case of multilayer perceptron, the proposed method is simpler to implement when compared to the mathematical and the hybrid methods.