Dehydration Of Yacon: Experimental Analysis And Numerical Modeling

Yacon roots are increasingly being consumed due to its prebiotic and antioxidant activities and its low caloric value. Dehydration methods have been employed to extend its shelf-life, however little academic literature exists on how to best apply drying technologies in order to obtain interesting products. Moreover, there is scarce data about mathematical modeling of osmotic dehydration of foods due to the difficulty of assessing the multicomponent mass flows involved. The application of osmotic treatment before convective drying (osmo-convective drying) provided quality gains to the dried yacon slices, such as low darkening rates and reduction of structural damages normally ascribed to conventional drying. In addition, the heat and mass transfer phenomena were successfully modeled and simulated, providing important data of temperature, moisture content and osmotic agent uptake. Thermophysical properties of yacon as a function of moisture content are also presented. The analysis should help both researchers on modeling food drying processes and designing/optimizing thermal processes applied to yacon and industries interested in producing derivates of this root.