Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy (JMPEE)
TITLE	Microwave Drying of Osmotically Dehydrated Blueberries [PDF]
AUTHORS	K. Venkatachalapathy and G. S. V. Raghavan 1998 33 2 95-102
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Abstract The drying rates, rehydration ratios, color, texture and sensory evaluations of blueberries that were pretreated with ethyloleate and sodium hydroxide, osmotically dehydrated in sucrose and dried in various regimes were compared. The drying regimes were: convection (35°C or 45°C at 2 ms^-1); microwave-assisted convection (0.1 or 0.2 W g^-1 incident power and freeze-drying. Convection and microwave-assisted convection trials were performed in a 750W multimode cavity microwave drier equipped with electrical heaters and blower. The berries were dried to 15% moisture content (wet basis). It was concluded that the procedure involving pretreatment, osmotic dehydration and microwave-assisted drying led to a dried blueberry that was comparable to the. Freeze dried berry in a much shorter time. Convection drying took the longest time. Key Words: Blueberries, Drying, Microwaves, Osmotic dehydration