Intermittent Drying of Carrot in a Vibrated Fluid Bed: Effect on Product Quality

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Drying of diced carrot was studied experimentally in a laboratory batch-type vibrofluidized bed dryer (VFB) The kinetics of the degradation reaction of P-carotene chosen as the dominant quality index were determined for various time-temperature conditions. Relationships were obtained for instantaneous concentration of β-carotene, and for the degradation rate constant as a function of moisture content and material temperature. It was shown that the best quality product is obtained when carrot is dried in a VFB dryer down to the critical moisture content, than conditioned (tempered) in a single layer exposed to ambient air, and then finish dried to the final moisture content in a VFB dryer.