LWT - Food Science and Technology 145 (2021) 111330

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LWT
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Impact of process parameters on drying behaviour, mass transfer and

quality profile of refractance window dried banana puree
Deependra Rajoriya a, b, M.L. Bhavya b, H. Umesh Hebbar a, b, *
a
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India
b
Food Engineering Department, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru, Karnataka, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Refractance Window (RW) is a relatively new drying technique for producing dried powders, slices or leathers
Ascorbic acid from fruits and vegetables. In the present study, the effect of temperature (70, 80 and 90 ◦ C) and thickness of
Colour puree (2 and 3 mm) on drying characteristics, mass transfer and quality attributes of RW dried banana puree
Effective diffusion coefficient
were investigated. Results showed that drying at 90 ◦ C reduced drying time (~61–64%) and energy consumption
Phenolic content
Principal component analysis
(~30–44%), as compared to drying at a lower temperature (70 ◦ C) for both the thickness. The effective diffusion
coefficient (Deff) values obtained (2.89 × 10− 9 to 8.84 × 10− 9 m2/s) using Dincer and Dost analytical approach
had higher R2 (0.980–0.991) and lower RMSE (0.029–0.053) values. RW drying at 90 ◦ C resulted in higher
ascorbic acid retention (~76–78%) with the least total colour change (3.4–6.9) compared to other studied
conditions. Besides, retention of total phenolic (10.3 mg GAE/g dm) and flavonoid contents (3.4 mg QE/g dm),
as well as antioxidant capacity (58.8 mM TE/g dm), were also better in samples dried at 90 ◦ C. The study
suggested that drying at a higher temperature during RW not only reduces drying time but also improves
retention of quality attributes.

1. Introduction Fruit leather/pestil is usually presented as a flexible strip or sheet

Banana (Musa acuminata) is cultivated abundantly in tropical and
subtropical regions of the world. India tops the list of banana-producing
countries, contributing nearly 26.62% of total world production (115.74
million tonnes), followed by China (10.0%) (FAOSTAT, 2018). How­
ever, it is a highly perishable commodity prone to rapid deterioration
during storage and is also sensitive to refrigerated conditions (Off­
ia-Olua & Ekwunife, 2015). Besides, undesirable physical, chemical and
biochemical changes occur at a faster rate during the processing of foods
due to tissue damage (Siriwardana, Abeywickrama, & Kannangara,
2015). Hence, there is a need for developing an efficient preservation
technique to obtain a stable banana product. One such preservative
technique is drying, having various advantages such as extending the
product’s shelf life, easy handling, reduced packaging, storage and
transportation costs (Mujumdar & Law, 2010). Apart from the
commonly available form of dried products such as slice and powder,
sheet or leather also has a potential market in the form of snack or
dessert and sometimes, it can also be used as an ingredient in biscuits,
breakfast cereal, and bakery products (Offia-Olua & Ekwunife, 2015; da
Silva Simão, de Moraes, Carciofi, & Laurindo, 2020).
produced by drying fruit puree/pulp or fruit juice concentrate with or
without preservatives/additives/other ingredients. Fruit leathers can be
a healthy substitute to the “Junk foods” basically for children with a
superior nutritional value containing low fat, high dietary fibers, vita­
mins, carbohydrates, minerals, and antioxidants. In addition, it is also a
convenient and economical fruit product that can be transported and
stored without refrigerated conditions (da Silva Simão et al., 2020). Hot
air drying is a preferable method to produce fruit leather from various
fruits such as kiwifruit, strawberry (Concha-Meyer, D’Ignoti, Saez, Diaz,
& Torres, 2016) and pomegranate (Yılmaz, Yüksekkaya, Vardin, &
Karaaslan, 2017). However, hot air drying at relatively elevated tem­
peratures and longer drying time may adversely affect the product’s
physico-nutritional properties and consumer’s acceptance (da Silva
Simão et al., 2020). In this regard, researchers focus on developing a
sustainable drying technique that produces a better quality product in a
cost and energy-efficient manner.
Refractance Window (RW) drying is a fourth-generation drying
technique, which is also termed as conductive hydro drying (Ortiz-Jerez
& Ochoa-Martínez, 2015) or cast tape drying (Durigon, Parisotto, Car­
ciofi, & Laurindo, 2018). In RW drying, hot water (temperature below

* Corresponding author. Food Engineering Department, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
E-mail address: hebbar@cftri.res.in (H.U. Hebbar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.111330
Received 9 November 2020; Received in revised form 13 March 2021; Accepted 15 March 2021
Available online 20 March 2021
0023-6438/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Rajoriya et al. LWT 145 (2021) 111330

boiling point) is used as a heating medium and circulated through the
reservoir on which flexible polyester (commercially known as Mylar™,
partially transparent to infrared radiation) film is placed. The drying
takes place by means of conduction and radiation, as the thermal energy
is transferred from hot water to the food material through the polyester
film. Further, the air surrounding the drying system carries away the
water vapor (moisture) removed from the food matrix (Nindo & Tang,
2007). Conduction and radiation during the RW drying are influenced
by various process parameters such as the heating medium’s tempera­
ture, characteristics of polyester film used, and the food material to be
dried. This technique has been used mainly for the production of powder
and flakes from liquid and semi-liquid (slurry/juice) fruits and vegeta­
bles such as strawberry, carrot (Abonyi et al., 2002), tomato (Castoldi,
Zotarelli, Durigon, Carciofi, & Laurindo, 2015) blueberries, tart cherries,
strawberries, and cranberries (Nemzer, Vargas, Xia, Sintara, & Feng,
2018), cornelian cherry (Tontul, Eroğlu, & Topuz, 2018), beetroot
(Preethi, Deotale, Moses, & Anandharamakrishnan, 2020). However, in
recent years, RW drying is also gaining considerable attention in the
production of dehydrated fruit leather/sheet. Studies on fruit leather
preparation from pomegranate (Tontul & Topuz, 2017) and mango (da
Silva Simão, de Moraes, de Souza, Carciofi, & Laurindo, 2019) have been
reported in the recent past. These studies suggested that RW is a
promising, feasible drying technique due to its low energy consumption
and processing cost for producing high-quality dried products (leath­
er/powder/flakes) with high nutritional value and better consumer
acceptance.
Practically, there are no comprehensive reports on RW drying of
banana puree for the preparation of banana leather/sheet, encompass­
ing studies on drying characteristics and product quality. Therefore, the
objective of the present study was to examine the influence of process
parameters such as drying temperature (70, 80 and 90 ◦ C) and puree
thickness (2 and 3 mm) on drying behavior (moisture and temperature
profile), mass transfer parameters and energy requirements. Further,
product quality attributes like colour, total phenolic content (TPC), total
flavonoid content (TFC), ascorbic acid and antioxidant capacity were
also studied.
observation for discoloration and solid loss of banana (data not shown).
The excess moisture present on the surface of banana pieces was
removed using blotting paper. The pretreated banana slices were ground
using a domestic kitchen mixer (MG 139 Preethi Mixer Grinder-750W,
Mysuru, India) for 1 min (15 s ON/OFF cycle to prevent the tempera­
ture rise) to get a homogeneous puree. The puree was strained using a
domestic strainer (60 mesh size), and then 0.2% (w/w) ascorbic acid
(AA) was added to prevent surface discoloration/browning and mixed
thoroughly before further use. The combination of 0.8% KMS +0.2%
AA, referred to as treated puree (TP), was selected based on the opti­
mization study considering the colour parameters of banana puree as
shown in Table 1. The fresh slice (FS) and untreated puree (UP) without
any treatment (KMS and/or AA) were used as comparative samples for
further analysis.
2.2. Chemicals
Aluminium trichloride, Folin Ciocalteu’s phenol reagent, KMS, so­
dium carbonate anhydrous, and sodium nitrite were obtained from
Merck, Mumbai, India. Standards like 2,2′ -Azino-bis (3-ethyl­
benzthiazoline- 6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), ascorbic acid, gallic acid mon­
ohydrate, quercetin, 2,4,6-Tri(2-pyridyl)-s-triazine (TPTZ), and 6-
hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid (Trolox) were
procured from Sigma- Aldrich, India. All the other chemicals used in the
present study were analytical grade and HPLC grade for high perfor­
mance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis.
2.3. RW drying
A laboratory-scale, batch-type RW drying system was developed in-
house (Fig. 1). In this system, hot water was used as a heating me­
dium, heated to the desired temperature (70, 80 and 90 ± 2 ◦ C) using a
thermostatic water bath (Shital Scientific Industries, Bombay, India).

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Preparation of banana puree

Ripe bananas (Cavendish banana) were purchased from the local

market of Mysuru, India. Bananas were chosen (visual analysis) based
on the degree of ripening (Stage 6, fully ripened and all yellow) as well
as total soluble solid content (20–23 ◦ Brix), measured using a digital
refractometer (Hanna Instruments, Model HI96801, Bengaluru, India).
Bananas were washed with tap water, peeled, and sliced (~5–7 mm
thick) manually using stainless steel knife. In order to prevent discol­
oration, the banana slices were pretreated by dipped in 0.8% (w/v)
potassium metabisulfite (KMS) solution for 2 min. The dipping time was
selected based on the preliminary studies focusing on the visual Fig. 1. Schematic representation of a batch-type RW drying system.

Table 1
Optimization of pretreatment condition for the preparation of banana puree based on the colour values and visual appearance.
Sample/colour parameters FS UP TP with 0.2% AA TP with 0.8% KMS TP with 0.8% KMS+0.2% AA

L* 74.35 ± 2.04d 53.48 ± 2.48a 62.94 ± 0.64b 69.35 ± 2.98c 74.59 ± 0.59d
a* 3.46 ± 0.59c 7.96 ± 0.04d 11.26 ± 0.10e 1.81 ± 1.16b 0.66 ± 0.08a
b* 27.46 ± 1.48c 19.10 ± 1.95a 28.21 ± 0.58c 18.48 ± 0.81a 22.02 ± 0.22b
ΔE — 22.94 ± 2.94c 13.85 ± 0.48b 10.62 ± 2.09b 6.14 ± 0.19a

n = 4, Different letters in the same row indicate significant difference (p < 0.05), FS- fresh slice; UP- untreated puree; TP- treated puree; AA-ascorbic acid; KMS-
potassium metabisulfite.

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D. Rajoriya et al. LWT 145 (2021) 111330

The range of temperature was selected based on the literature reports constant thermophysical properties of solid material and drying me­
(Zotarelli, Carciofi, & Laurindo, 2015; Castoldi et al., 2015; Rajoriya, dium; the negligible impact of heat transfer on moisture loss and; the
Shewale, & Hebbar, 2019), suggesting that circulating water tempera­ existence of effective diffusion coefficient in the thickness direction in
ture below 70 ◦ C can lead to longer drying time and lower product slab geometry.
quality, while higher temperature (>95 ◦ C) can create turbulence and
∑
∞
air bubbles in the heating medium, interfering the heat transfer through MR = An Bn for 0.1 < Bi < 100, and Bi > 100 (2)
the polyester film (Clarke, 2004). Further, the heating medium was n=1

circulated using a peristaltic pump (RH-P120L; Ravel Hiteks Pvt., Ltd.,

Chennai, India) at a flow rate of ~0.03 ± 0.002 L/s to the water reser­ Where MR is dimensionless moisture ratio estimated using experimental
voir (0.40 m × 0.30 m × 0.05 m). moisture content values using Eq. (3)
The prepared banana puree was then spread at a thickness of 2 and 3 Mt − Me
MR = (3)
mm on the food-grade polyester film (Mylar™, 0.25 mm thick), and then M0 − Me
the film was kept on the heating medium. The thickness of film was
selected based on the literature reports indicating that 0.25 mm is Where Mt, Mo and Me are the moisture content at time ‘t’, initial and
suitable for RW drying from both mechanical and thermal properties equilibrium moisture content respectively; expressed as g H2O/g dm,
point of view (Zotarelli et al., 2015; Tontul & Topuz, 2017; Rajoriya and An and Bn are the dimensionless quantities and can be defined as
et al., 2019). Puree thicknesses of 2 and 3 mm were chosen to maintain a given in Eqs. (4) and (5), respectively, for slab geometry (Dincer & Dost,
good homogeneous spread based on the literature reports to produce 1995).
fruit leather (Valenzuela & Aguilera, 2015; da Silva Simão et al., 2019). {
For this purpose, the spreader was developed with a fixed gap between ( sin μn )/((
An = (2 )/μn ) + (sin μn cos μn )) for 0.1 < Bi < 100 (4)
An = 2(− 1)n+1 (μn ) for Bi > 100
Mylar film surface and the spreader. A batch size of ~200 and 300 g
banana puree was used for maintaining 2 and 3 mm thickness, respec­ ( )
Bn = exp − μ2n Fo for 0.1 < Bi < 100 and Bi > 100 (5)
tively, in all the drying experiments. The samples were withdrawn from
different areas of puree at regular intervals (~10 min) for the estimation In Eqs. (4) and (5), μn is the nth root of the transcendental charac­
of moisture. The drying process was continued until the final moisture teristic equation (dimensionless). Further, Eq. (2) can be simplified into
content reached ~12–13% (wb) in dried banana leather. All the drying Eq. (6) considering the first term only from the infinite sum in Eq. (2),
experiments were carried out in triplicate. when values of Fourier number (F0) are negligibly small (Bezerra, da
Silva, Corrêa, & Rodrigues, 2015).
2.4. Measurement of temperature
MR ≅ A1 B1 (6)

During the drying process, product temperature was measured at an Where A1 and B1 for slab geometry are given as:
interval of 5 min, using a type-K thermocouple (accuracy, ±0.01 ◦ C;
HTA Instrumentation (P) LTD., India) connected to a digital temperature A1 = G = exp(0.2533Bi / (1.31 + Bi )) (7)
indicator (model EQ-DS8B-IRRB, Equinox, HTA Instrumentation (P) ( )
LTD., India). The experiments were carried out in triplicate, and the B1 = exp − μ21 F0 (8)
average value of temperature was reported.
Where F0 is Fourier number (F0 = Deff t/L2 ) ; L is a characteristic
dimension (m), indicating the shortest distance from the surface to the
2.5. Determination of drying characteristics
center of the object (half-thickness for slab); Bi is Biot number (dimen­
sionless parameter), indicating the ratio of mass transfer resistance
2.5.1. Moisture content and water activity measurement
within a body (internal) to that at the surface of the body (external)
The hot air oven method (70 ± 2 ◦ C and dried until a constant
during drying; ‘μ1’ is a characteristic root depending on the product
weight), reported by Ranganna (1986) was used to estimate the mois­
geometry and determined from Eq. (9) for slab geometry,
ture content in samples. The water activity (aw) of samples was recorded
using a water activity meter (AquaLab, Decagon Devices, Washington, μ1 = atan(0.640443Bi + 0.380397) (9)
USA) at 27 ± 1 ◦ C, and the values were expressed as mean ± SD.
Since an exponential declining trend in moisture content is observed
during drying, Dincer and Dost (1995) proposed Eq. (10) by presenting
2.5.2. Drying rate and evaporative capacity
lag factor (G, dimensionless) and drying coefficient (S, 1/s).
The drying rate (dx/dt, g H2O/g. min) was determined from the slope
obtained from the linear fitting of the initial part of the drying curve MR = G exp(− St) (10)
(moisture content (g H2O/g) vs. drying time (min)). Further, evapora­
tive capacity (water evaporation rate per unit area, E) was also esti­ And the G and S values in Eq. (10) were obtained using the least square
mated using Eq. (1) as mentioned by Durigon et al. (2018), curve fitting method by the Solver tool of Microsoft Excel 2010
(Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA). Further, the Biot
dX
E= − (1 − M0 )ρL (1) number (Bi) was calculated using the G value from Eq. (7).
dt
The effective diffusion coefficient (Deff) and mass transfer coefficient
in which M0 is the initial moisture content (0.794 ± 0.003 g H2O/g), (hm) were estimated using Eqs. (11) and (12), respectively.
ρ is the initial puree density measured using a pycnometer (984.45 ±
5.58 kg/m3), and L is the initial puree thickness (0.002 and 0.003 m). Deff =
SL2
(11)
μ21
2.5.3. Determination of mass transfer parameters
The effective diffusion coefficient (Deff, m2/s) and mass transfer co­
Deff × Bi
hm = (12)
L
efficient (hm, m/s) were determined according to Dincer and Dost (1995)
analytical approach. Dincer and Dost presented a simplified and
compact solution, Eq. (2) for the time-dependent Fick’s diffusivity
equation for different geometry to determine the dimensionless mois­
ture content at any point of the product using the following assumptions:

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D. Rajoriya et al. LWT 145 (2021) 111330

consumed ​ energy ​ value ​ (kWh)

Specific ​ energy ​ consumption ​ (kWh / kg) = (14)
quantity ​ of ​ moisture ​ removed ​ during ​ drying ​ (kg)

2.6. Total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant
capacity
The extract of fresh banana fruit and dried leather was obtained as
mentioned by Wojdyło, Oszmiański, and Laskowski (2008). Briefly, ~1 g
sample was mixed thoroughly with 30 mL of 80% aqueous methanol
containing 1% HCl using a magnetic stirrer for 15 min. Further, the
suspension was sonicated twice for 15 min each and incubated at room
temperature (~27 ± 2 ◦ C) for 24 h in dark conditions. The supernatant
was obtained after centrifugation (Sorvall ST 8R, Thermo Fisher Scien­
tific Inc., Germany) of suspension at 4 ◦ C and 5488g for 20 min. The
collected supernatant was further used for the estimation of TPC, TFC
and antioxidant capacity.
The assays for TPC, TFC and antioxidant capacity (Ferric reducing-
antioxidant power (FRAP) and ABTS radical-scavenging activity
(ABTS)) were performed as described in Supplementary Table 1. Finally,
the absorbance of the mixture was read using Microplate Spectropho­
tometer (51119700 Multiskan sky, Thermoscientific, USA). All the ex­
periments were performed in triplicate. The mean values for TPC, TFC
and antioxidant capacity (FRAP and ABTS) were expressed as mg gallic
acid equivalents per g dry matter (mg of GAE/g dm), mg quercetin
equivalents per g dry matter (mg QE/g dm) and mM Trolox equivalent
per g dry matter (mM TE/g dm), respectively.
reference material.
2.9. Specific energy consumption (SEC)
A Digital single-phase energy meter (10–60A CL1, L&T, India) was
used to measure the electrical energy consumed during the drying
process. Then, the SEC was estimated using Eq. (14) as mentioned by
Shewale, Rajoriya, Bhavya, and Hebbar (2021),
2.10. Statistical analysis
Analysis of Variance (one way-ANOVA) was conducted for multiple
comparisons of means followed by post-hoc Duncan’s multiple range
test (significance level, p < 0.05) using the statistical program SPSS
(Version 20.0, IBM SPSS Inc., Armonk, NY, USA). The principal
component analysis (PCA) and correlation studies were performed ac­
cording to Pearson’s method using the software XLSTAT VERSION
2019.3.2.

2.7. Ascorbic acid (AA)

Extract for the estimation of AA was obtained as the procedure rec­

ommended by Hernández, Lobo, and González (2006). The sample (~5
and 1 g for fresh banana slice and treated puree/dried banana leather,
respectively) was macerated in 25 mL of a solution containing 3%
metaphosphoric acid and 8% acetic acid using mortar and pestle. The
mixture was further centrifuged at 4 ◦ C and 5488 g for 10 min. Before
HPLC analysis, the obtained supernatant was filtered through a 0.45 μm
PTFE syringe filter (Nupore filtration systems Pvt. Ltd. India). Further,
an aliquot was analyzed using HPLC system (LC-8A, Shimadzu) having a
C-18 Ascentis column (4.6 mm × 250 mm ID, particle size 5 μm) and
PDA detector according to Bhavya and Hebbar (2019). The parameters
for chromatographic analysis were as follows: 0.005 N H2SO4- mobile
phase, 10 μL-injection volume, flow rate- 1 mL/min, and absorbance-
245 nm. The calibration curve of AA was obtained from standard AA
(50–800 μg/mL) and further used for quantification by comparing peak
area. Experiments were performed in triplicate, and the average value
was reported.

2.8. Colour parameters

The surface colour of the samples was measured using a colorimeter

(CM5, Konica Minolta, Japan) to determine colour parameters such as L*
(brightness/darkness); a* (greenness/redness) and b* (blueness/yel­
lowness). Experiments were performed in quadruplicate, and the mean
of L* , a* and b* values were calculated. Further, the total colour change
(ΔE) was calculated using the following Eq. (13),
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
ΔE = (L0 − Li )2 + (a0 − ai )2 + (b0 − bi )2 (13)

Where Li, ai, and bi correspond to the values of treated/dried samples, Fig. 2. Effect of drying temperature (70, 80 and 90 ◦ C) and puree thickness on
whereas L0, a0 and b0 refer to the values of the fresh banana slice used as the temperature profile of dried banana leather (a) 2 mm and (b) 3 mm.

4
D. Rajoriya et al. LWT 145 (2021) 111330

3. Result and discussion
3.1. Temperature profile
The temperature profile of banana puree during RW drying was
determined and is presented in Fig. 2. The rapid rise in product tem­
perature was observed in the initial stages of drying and is attributed to
greater temperature gradient between puree and heating medium
(Nindo, Feng, Shen, Tang, & Kang, 2003). This temperature difference
acts as a driving force for heat transfer during the drying process. Similar
results were also reported by Castoldi et al. (2015) and Zotarelli et al.
(2015) during RW drying of tomato and mango pulp, respectively. In the
current study, it is noticeable from Fig. 2 that there is a significant dif­
ference in product temperature between the puree thickness at a
particular drying time. For instance, during RW drying (90 ◦ C) at 40
min, product temperature was 67 and 82 ◦ C for 3 and 2 mm, respec­
tively. Besides, the final temperature attained by banana leather during
the drying was 64, 73, and 82 ± 1 ◦ C, which was relatively lower by
6–8 ◦ C than the circulated water temperature, 70, 80 and 90 ◦ C,
respectively. This temperature difference could be due to the surface
moisture evaporation (known as evaporative cooling effect) leading to
the removal of thermal energy from the product’s surface, as reported by
Nindo et al. (2003). This occurs when there is a thermal balance between
the heat transfer from the heating medium to the sample surface after
the product reaches an appropriate temperature.
3.2. Drying characteristics
3.2.1. Moisture content and water activity
The influence of drying temperature and puree thickness on the
drying characteristics were studied during RW drying of banana puree.
The average moisture content in the fresh slice and the treated puree was
75.6 ± 0.9 and 79.4 ± 0.4% (wb), respectively. In the present study, the
banana puree was dried to obtain leather with a final moisture content of
12–13% (wb). The final moisture content of the banana leather was
selected based on the literature reports recommending the suitable
moisture content for fruit leather/pestil to be below 15%, which retards
microbial growth and deterioration reactions (Suna, Tamer, İnceday,
Sinir, & Çopur, 2014). Tontul and Topuz (2017) and Yılmaz et al. (2017)
also dried pomegranate pestil to a final moisture content of 10–12%.
Water activity (aw) indicates the amount of water available for mi­
crobes to grow in the food materials. The aw of banana TP was found to
be 0.98 ± 0.001, and that of dried leather was in the range of 0.49–0.52
(Table 2), falling within limits to be considered as safe for storage
(aw<0.6) as reported by Ochoa-Martínez, Quintero, Ayala, and Ortiz
(2012). Similar aw values were reported by Tontul and Topuz (2017) and
da Silva Simão et al. (2019) during RW drying of pomegranate (0.55)
and mango (0.42–0.46) leather, respectively. In the present investiga­
tion, it can be noticed that puree thickness significantly (p<0.05)
affected the aw values at respective drying temperatures (Table 2).
3.2.2. Drying time, drying rate and evaporative capacity
Typical drying curves (moisture content or moisture ratio versus
time) obtained for circulating water temperature (70, 80 and 90 ◦ C) and
puree thickness (2 and 3 mm) of RW dried banana puree are presented in
Fig. 3. As expected, a reduction in drying time was noticed when the
temperature of the heating medium increased from 70 to 80 ◦ C (45.5 and
38.9% for 2 and 3 mm, respectively) and 70–90 ◦ C (63.6 and 61.1% for 2
and 3 mm, respectively). This reduction in drying time can be attributed
to an increase in energy supplied, facilitating diffusion and removing
moisture from the material at a faster rate (Maskan, Kaya, & Maskan,
2002). In the present investigation, drying at a higher temperature
(90 ◦ C) required lesser time (40 and 70 min for 2 and 3 mm, respec­
tively) to reach the final moisture content. Further, an increase in puree

Table 2
Influence of drying temperature and puree thickness on water activity, drying
rate, evaporative capacity and specific energy consumption.
Puree T Water Drying Evaporative SEC (kWh/kg
thickness (◦ C) activity rate Capacity moisture
(aw) removal)
(g g− 1 (kg/m− 2
h− 1)
min− 1)

2 mm 70 0.503 ± 0.082 ± 1.99 ± 0.13a 4.99 ± 0.05d

0.012abc 0.006b
(r2 =
0.989)
80 0.493 ± 0.117 ± 2.85 ± 0.21c 4.24 ± 0.10c
0.006ab 0.008c
(r2 =
0.968)
90 0.490 ± 0.165 ± 4.00 ± 0.10d 2.80 ± 0.10a
0.010a 0.004d
(r2 =
0.996)

3 mm 70 0.520 ± 0.053 ± 1.95 ± 0.15a 5.39 ± 0.17e

0.010d 0.004a
(r2 =
0.980)
80 0.513 ± 0.065 ± 2.37 ± 0.20b 4.91 ± 0.17d
0.006cd 0.006a
(r2 =
0.966)
90 0.507 ± 0.082 ± 3.00 ± 0.15c 3.78 ± 0.07b
0.006bcd 0.004b
(r2 =
0.972)

n = 3, Different letters in the same column indicate significant difference (p < Fig. 3. Effect of drying temperature and puree thickness on drying rate (a, c)
0.05), T-temperature; SEC-specific energy consumption. and moisture ratio (b, d) curves for 2 mm (a, b) and 3 mm (c, d).

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D. Rajoriya et al. LWT 145 (2021) 111330

thickness from 2 to 3 mm also increased the drying time by 63.6–83.3%
at studied temperatures. This may be attributed to an increase in the
travelling distance of water molecules to escape from the sample sur­
face, with the rise in puree thickness (Maskan et al., 2002). Similar re­
sults were also observed by Castoldi et al. (2015) and Frabetti, Durigon,
and Laurindo (2018) in RW drying of tomato and guava pulp,
respectively.
Drying rates obtained from fitting linear regressions to a part of the
experimental data (Fig. 3a and c) have been presented in Table 2. It can
be seen that all the drying curves exhibited a constant rate period
showing linear behavior (r2 > 0.96) where most of the moisture was
removed. The corresponding moisture removal during the constant rate
period was in the range of 53.1–64.7% and 47.0–57.6% for 2 and 3 mm
puree thickness, respectively. The duration of this period corresponds to
36.4, 50 and 50% for 2 mm and 33.3, 45.4 and 57% for 3 mm of total
drying time at drying temperatures 70, 80 and 90 ◦ C, respectively
(Fig. 3). da Silva Simão et al. (2019) and Frabetti et al. (2018) also re­
ported that the constant rate period contributes to 38.8 and 63.6% of the
total drying time for drying mango and guava pulp (3 mm) at 98 ◦ C,
respectively. The observed constant drying rate period during RW dry­
ing could be credited to rapid mass transfer due to high initial moisture
content and comparatively lower internal resistance for the small
thickness of puree (Zotarelli et al., 2015; Frabetti et al., 2018). Later, a
falling rate period was also observed during RW drying of banana puree
until the product reached 12–13% (wb) moisture content. Similarly, da
Silva Simão et al. (2019) observed a falling rate period during RW drying
of mango leather. In the current study, for 2 mm thick puree, the drying
rate increased by 1.4 and 2.0 folds when the water temperature
increased from 70 to 80 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C, respectively. While for 3 mm,
increment in drying rate by 1.2 and 1.5 folds was observed, when the
water temperature increased from 70 to 80 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C, respectively.
The obtained values for evaporative capacity during RW drying have
been presented in Table 2. It was observed that the evaporative capacity
increased with the rise in drying temperature, whereas it decreased with
the increase in puree thickness. A similar trend was also observed by
Zotarelli et al. (2015) and Frabetti et al. (2018) during the drying of
mango and guava pulp, respectively. Overall, it can be noticed that RW
drying at 90 ◦ C showed the highest value of evaporative capacities at
both the puree thickness, which is also evident from the obtained drying
rate.
resistance of a solid object to the heat and/or moisture transfer during
the drying process, as a function of the Bi. It is evident from Table 3, that
the increase in drying temperature and decrease in puree thickness
increased the S and decreased the G values. This trend can be attributed
to the rise in drying temperature and a reduction in sample thickness,
fastening the heat and mass transfer between the heating medium and
food matrix, leading to a higher drying capability (Beigi, 2016). The
obtained Bi values fall in the range of 0.1136–0.4128 (0.1<Bi<100, the
most common case for drying application), indicating the existence of
both finite internal and surface/external resistances. Similar Bi values
(0.1224–0.2765) were also mentioned in our previous work (Rajoriya
et al., 2019) during RW drying of apple slices (2 mm). The Bi values
closer to 0.1 indicates the effect of internal resistance on mass transfer
comparatively higher than that of external resistance. This internal
resistance further gets increased when puree thickness increases, which
was evident from the drying time observed during drying of the thicker
sample (Fig. 3).
The Deff refers to the diffusion of moisture from the internal to
external layer for a particular area per unit time. The estimated Deff
values were found to be in the range of 2.89 × 10− 9 to 8.84 × 10− 9 m2/s
(Table 3), which falls in the general range of 10− 11-10− 9 m2/s for
agricultural products (Madamba, Driscoll, & Buckle, 1996). The values
were consistent with the other literature reports, for instance, RW dried
mango (4.40 × 10− 10-1.56 × 10− 9 m2/s), apple (8.16 × 10− 10-1.50 ×
10− 9 m2/s) slices and Physalis Fruit Purée (2.7 × 10− 10-10.1 × 10− 10
m2/s) as reported by Ochoa-Martínez et al. (2012), Rajoriya, Shewale,
Bhavya, and Hebbar (2020) and Puente-Díaz, Spolmann, Nocetti,
Zura-Bravo, and Lemus-Mondaca (2020), respectively. In the current
study, it can be seen that increase in drying temperature and puree
thickness increased Deff value, which is similar to the observations made
by other researchers (Ochoa-Martínez et al., 2012; Yılmaz et al., 2017).
An increase in drying temperature accelerated the activity of water
molecules due to higher thermal energy, resulting in reducing the vis­
cosity of water, in turn increasing the moisture diffusivity (Shi et al.,
2008). Further, in the present investigation, a multiple linear regression
technique was used to determine a suitable mathematical relationship
(Eq. (14)) between the Deff and the process variables (drying tempera­
ture and puree thickness) with excellent R2 and adjusted R2 values of
0.991 and 0.985, respectively.
Deff = − 1.65 × 10− 08
+ 2.64 × 10− 10
(T) + 5.01 × 10− 10
(L) (15)

The calculated hm for dried banana leather during RW drying was

3.3. Mass transfer parameters
The estimated mass transfer parameters such as lag factor (G), drying
coefficient (S), Biot number (Bi), effective diffusion coefficient (Deff), and
mass transfer coefficient (hm) are presented in Table 3. It can be noted
that good fitting between experimental and predicted moisture ratio was
obtained for all the drying conditions studied, with higher R2
(0.980–0.991) and lower RMSE (0.0294–0.0534) values (Table 3;
Fig. 3b and d). The S shows the drying capability of a solid object per
unit time while G indicates the magnitude of both internal and external
found in the range of 7.59 × 10− 7 to 9.86 × 10− 7 m/s (Table 3), which
are in agreement with other published reports (Bezerra et al., 2015;
Rajoriya et al., 2019). Furthermore, in the present study, hm values
increased in parallel to an increase in drying temperature and puree
thickness similar to Deff values. This increase in hm values can be
explained through higher diffusivity, which increases the moisture
movement rate from the inner layer to the surface of the dried product.
Subsequently, this increases the gradient of moisture concentration be­
tween the surface of food material and the surrounding air, thus

Table 3
Impact of drying temperature and puree thickness on mass transfer parameters obtained using Dincer and Dost analytical approach.
Experimental conditions Model coefficients Mass transfer parameters Statistical parameters

Puree thickness T (◦ C) G S (s− 1) Bi μ1 Deff (m2/s) hm (m/s) R2 RMSE

− 04 − 09 − 07
2 mm 70 1.045 7.45 × 10 0.2755 0.5081 2.89 × 10 7.59 × 10 0.983 0.0422
03 09 07
80 1.025 1.16 × 10− 0.1431 0.4410 5.95 × 10− 8.52 × 10− 0.987 0.0396
03 09 07
90 1.021 1.43 × 10− 0.1136 0.4255 7.92 × 10− 9.00 × 10− 0.980 0.0534

04 09 07
3 mm 70 1.063 4.85 × 10− 0.4128 0.5727 3.32 × 10− 9.15 × 10− 0.990 0.0294
04 09 07
80 1.039 6.41 × 10− 0.2316 0.4864 6.09 × 10− 9.41 × 10− 0.991 0.0300
04 09 07
90 1.029 8.09 × 10− 0.1673 0.4536 8.84 × 10− 9.86 × 10− 0.986 0.0397

T- Temperature; G- Lag factor; S- Drying coefficient; Bi- Biot number; μ1- Characteristic root; Deff- Moisture diffusivity; hm- Mass transfer coefficient; R2- Coefficient of
determination; RMSE- Root mean square error.

6
D. Rajoriya et al. LWT 145 (2021) 111330

increasing the rate of absorption of water vapor by the air (Prabhanjan, 3.5.2. Ascorbic acid
Ramaswamy, & Raghavan, 1995; Rajoriya et al., 2019). Besides the Ascorbic acid is sensitive to several intrinsic and extrinsic factors
combination of radiation and conduction (due to the hot water circu­ such as light, temperature, oxygen, moisture content, metal ion catal­
lation) during the RW drying, heat and mass transfer also occurs in the ysis, and processing time (Santos & Silva, 2008). In this regard, the effect
food material due to the circulation of air surrounding the sample that of drying conditions on AA retention (%) was estimated with respect to
increases the convection mechanism resulting in a higher mass transfer TP, and the results are presented in Table 4. It can be observed that an
coefficient (Leiton-Ramírez, Ayala-Aponte, & Ochoa-Martínez, 2020). increase in drying temperature from 70 to 90 ◦ C significantly (p<0.05)
retained AA in both puree thicknesses. This retention at higher tem­
perature may be due to faster drying process, resulting in reduction of
3.4. Specific energy consumption (SEC) oxidative degradation of AA (Tontul & Topuz, 2017; Rajoriya et al.,
2019). In the present study, there was no significant difference between
The effect of processing conditions on the SEC during RW drying of 70 and 80 ◦ C, irrespective of the puree thickness.
banana puree was studied, and the results are presented in Table 2.
Noticeably, RW drying at the higher temperature required lesser SEC for 3.5.3. Total phenolic and flavonoid content
both the pure thickness. SEC reduced by 15.0 and 43.9% for 2 mm and In the current investigation, significant (p<0.05) elevation in the
8.9 and 29.9% for 3 mm when water temperature increased from 70 to TPC and TFC was observed in TP, as compared to FS (Fig. 4a and b) due
80 and 90 ◦ C, respectively. This can be attributed to a significant to the addition of AA that contributes to both TPC and TFC. This further
reduction in drying time at higher drying temperatures. Overall, among can be proved by the strong positive correlation of AA with TPC (r =
the studied conditions, the least SEC value was observed for drying of 2 0.973) and TFC (r = 0.900). In addition, there was also a positive cor­
mm banana puree at 90 ◦ C (2.80 kWh/kg of water removal). relation between TPC and TFC with r = 0.866 (Supplementary Table 2).
Among the studied drying conditions, 70 and 90 ◦ C had higher retention
of TPC (~82 and 84%) than TP. Better retention of TPC in samples dried
3.5. Physico-chemical characteristics at a higher temperature (90 ◦ C) could be due to the formation of pre­
cursors of phenolic compounds by non-enzymatic interconversion be­
3.5.1. Colour parameters tween phenolic molecules (Vega-Gálvez et al., 2009). Besides, in the
The influence of processing conditions on the colour parameters of present study, lesser drying time at 90 ◦ C than 70 ◦ C also could have
RW dried banana puree is presented in Table 4. The total colour change prevented the thermal and oxidative degradation of phenolic com­
(ΔE) was calculated considering fresh slice as the control or reference pounds. However, 80 ◦ C negatively affected TPC by ~74%, which could
material. The least ΔE values were observed for the samples dried at be due to the combined effect of drying time and temperature on
90 ◦ C, among all the drying conditions studied. Puree thickness had a nutrient retention (Fig. 4a). A similar trend was also reported by Yılmaz
significant (p<0.05) effect on ΔE values of samples dried at respective et al. (2017) and Chin, Siew, and Soon (2015) during conventional
drying temperatures. Noticeably, ΔE values decreased, and L* values drying of pomegranate pestil and kiwi slices at different temperatures
increased as the drying temperature increased from 70 to 90 ◦ C, irre­ and thicknesses. Further, in the present study, among the drying con­
spective of the puree thickness. This could be attributed to a significant ditions, TFC was retained in the range of ~59–64% compared to TP
reduction in drying time by >60% between 70 and 90 ◦ C, thus preser­ (Fig. 4b). It can also be noticed that there was no significant effect of
ving the colour of the dried sample. The opposite relationship between drying temperature and puree thickness on the TFC of dried banana
L* and ΔE can be confirmed from the correlation studies, as there was a leather. However, samples dried at a higher temperature (90 ◦ C) had the
negative correlation between L* and ΔE (r = − 0.918) (Supplementary highest TFC compared to all the drying conditions studied, irrespective
Table 2). Further, no significant (p>0.05) difference was noticed in the of puree thickness.
colour parameters of samples dried at 70 and 80 ◦ C. The positive values
of b* (representing yellow colour) of the dried samples ranged from 3.5.4. Antioxidant capacity
20.71 to 26.74, which was slightly lower than the FS (27.46). The antioxidant capacity of banana leather was estimated using
ABTS and FRAP methods, and the results are depicted in Fig. 4c and d,
respectively. It can be seen that a significant rise in the antioxidant ca­
Table 4
Effect of drying temperature and puree thickness on the colour attributes and pacity was observed in TP compared to FS due to the addition of AA
ascorbic acid retention of RW dried banana leather. (potential antioxidant agent) that is evident from the strong positive
correlation observed for AA with FRAP (r = 0.994) and ABTS (r = 0.959)
Sample T L* a* b* ΔE AA
(◦ C) retention* (Supplementary Table 2). In the case of ABTS, there was no significant
(%) difference among the studied drying conditions. While in the case of
FS 74.35 ± 3.46 ± 27.46 ± —— —
FRAP, the highest retention of antioxidant capacity (~74–80%
2.04d 0.59e 1.48d compared to TP) was observed in samples dried at 90 ◦ C, among the
2 mm 70 68.15 ± 1.01 ± 23.75 ± 7.65 ± 68.35 ± studied drying conditions. This could be due to rapid reduction in
1.00b 0.22b 0.25b 0.85b 5.53a moisture content at a higher temperature, minimizing deterioration of
80 68.94 1.04 ± 22.90 ± 7.50 ± 67.62 ±
±
antioxidant compounds and increasing the release of bound phenolics
1.11b 0.06b 0.52b 1.09b 0.60a
90 71.66 ± 2.81 ± 25.46 ± 3.44 ± 78.31 ± from the cellular matrix (Hernández-Santos et al., 2016). Further, this
1.11c 0.20d 0.40c 1.07a 1.07b could be justified from the correlation studies (Supplementary Table 2)
that phenolic compounds (TPC) also contribute to the antioxidant ca­
3 mm 70 65.90 ± 0.25 ± 21.48 ± 10.85 ± 62.77 ± pacity as they showed a strong positive correlation with FRAP (r =
0.64a 0.23a 0.27a 0.47c 0.45a
0.967) and ABTS (r = 0.947). Similarly, Rajoriya et al. (2020) also
80 65.27 ± 0.33 ± 20.71 ± 11.75 ± 61.75 ±
0.94a 0.23a 0.94a 1.25c 2.42a
observed a strong positive correlation of TPC with FRAP (0.985) and
90 67.67 ± 2.08 ± 26.74 ± 6.87 ± 76.43 ± ABTS (0.994). In the present study, an increase in puree thickness had a
0.51b 0.22c 0.40d 0.55b 1.60b significant adverse effect on antioxidant capacity at 90 ◦ C due to a
*AA retention calculated with respect to treated puree; n = 3, Different letters in prolonged exposure period. Overall, it can be concluded that reduction
the same column indicate significant difference (p < 0.05), FS-fresh slice; L*- in processing time at higher drying temperature was responsible for
lightness; a*- redness; b*- yellowness; ΔE-total colour difference; AA-ascorbic higher retention of antioxidant capacity.
acid.

7
D. Rajoriya et al.
Fig. 4. Effect of drying temperature and puree thickness on (a) Total phenolic content (TPC); (b) Total flavonoid content (TFC); (c) ABTS radical scavenging activity;
(d) Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of RW dried banana leather. (n = 3, Bar labelled with different superscripts are statistically different (p < 0.05)).
Fig. 5. Biplot of principal component analysis of physicochemical parameters
of dried banana leather (TPC-Total phenolic content; TFC-Total flavonoid
content; FRAP-Ferric reducing antioxidant power; ABTS radical scavenging
activity; AA-Ascorbic acid; L*-lightness; a*-redness; b*-yellowness; ΔE-total
colour change; FS-fresh slice; TP-treated puree). (For interpretation of the ref­
erences to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version
of this article.)
3.6. Principal component analysis
PCA is a statistical tool that helps in better visualization of under­
lying patterns in the experimental data by reducing the data dimen­
sionality (Shewale, Rajoriya, & Hebbar, 2019). In the present
investigation, PCA was conducted for different drying conditions of RW,
and the obtained biplot is depicted in Fig. 5. The first two principal
components were explained by 92.95% of the variance (F1 = 69.45%,
F2 = 23.49%), where F1 majorly contributed for all the variables except
for L*. Fig. 5 showed that the TP and samples dried at 90 ◦ C- 2 and 3 mm
8
LWT 145 (2021) 111330
situated in the lower quadrant along with TPC, ABTS, TFC, FRAP, AA, L*
and b* indicates the higher retention of the mentioned parameters.
While, samples dried at 70 and 80 ◦ C formed a group and were located in
the upper right quadrant along with ΔE, signifying moderate effect on
the quality parameters. However, FS was situated alone in the upper left
quadrant away from the origin, demonstrating the lowest content of the
studied parameters compared to TP due to the addition of AA in TP.
4. Conclusion
Drying at 90 ◦ C reduced the drying time by 61–64% compared to
70 ◦ C. The Deff and hm values increased with an increase in drying
temperature and puree thickness. Reducing the puree thickness from 3
to 2 mm, reduced energy consumption by ~7.4–25.9% when drying
temperature was increased from 70 to 90 ◦ C. RW drying at 90 ◦ C showed
76–78% retention of AA with the least total colour change among all the
studied conditions. Higher retention of bioactive compounds such as
phenolics (84%), flavonoids (64%) and antioxidant activity (80%) were
observed in banana puree dried at 90 ◦ C. The Physico-chemical analysis
showed that drying at a higher temperature (90 ◦ C) produced better
quality banana leather than other studied conditions. The present study
indicated that RW drying could be an efficient method for preparing
fruit leathers that can be consumed as healthy and nutritious snacks.
Further, large-scale trials are required to evaluate the scalability and
commercial viability of the RW drying for the production of fruit leather
as it is a time-saving, energy and cost-efficient technique with assured
product quality.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Deependra Rajoriya: Development of proposed drying system,
Methodology, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Data, Formal anal­
ysis, and interpretation, Writing – original draft, preparation. M.L.
Bhavya: Data curation, Data, Formal analysis, and interpretation,
Writing – original draft, preparation. H. Umesh Hebbar: Conceptuali­
zation, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
D. Rajoriya et al.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the Director, CSIR-CFTRI, for providing
the infrastructure and other facilities for carrying out this work. The first
author would like to thank UGC-RGNF for the award of Senior Research
Fellowship.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.111330.
Funding information
This study received financial support from Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), India.
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Vega-Gálvez, A., Di Scala, K., Rodríguez, K., Lemus-Mondaca, R., Miranda, M., López, J.,
et al. (2009). Effect of air-drying temperature on physico-chemical properties,
antioxidant capacity, colour and total phenolic content of red pepper (Capsicum
annuum, L. var. Hungarian). Food Chemistry, 117(4), 647–653.
Wojdyło, A., Oszmiański, J., & Laskowski, P. (2008). Polyphenolic compounds and
antioxidant activity of new and old apple varieties. Journal of Agricultural and Food
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Yılmaz, F. M., Yüksekkaya, S., Vardin, H., & Karaaslan, M. (2017). The effects of drying
conditions on moisture transfer and quality of pomegranate fruit leather (pestil).
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Further reading
Benzie, I. F., & Strain, J. J. (1999). [2] ferric reducing/antioxidant power assay: Direct
measure of total antioxidant activity of biological fluids and modified version for
simultaneous measurement of total antioxidant power and ascorbic acid
concentration. Methods In Enzymology (Vol. 299,, 15–27 (Academic press).
Re, R., Pellegrini, N., Proteggente, A., Pannala, A., Yang, M., & Rice-Evans, C. (1999).
Antioxidant activity applying an improved ABTS radical cation decolorization assay.
Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 26(9–10), 1231–1237.
Shewale, S. R., & Hebbar, H. U. (2017). Effect of infrared pretreatment on low-humidity
air drying of apple slices. Drying Technology, 35(4), 490–499.
Wolfe, K., Wu, X., & Liu, R. H. (2003). Antioxidant activity of apple peels. Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 51(3), 609–614.