Food Eng Rev

DOI 10.1007/s12393-015-9120-4

ORIGINAL PAPER

Improvement of Water Transport and Carotenoid Retention

During Drying of Papaya by Applying Ultrasonic Osmotic
Pretreatment
Patrı́cia Moreira Azoubel1 • Mariana da Rocha Amorim2 • Sofia Sorelly Belém Oliveira3 •
Maria Inês Sucupira Maciel4 • João Domingos Rodrigues5

Received: 10 November 2014 / Accepted: 13 March 2015

Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract The effect of ultrasound and osmotic dehydra-
tion pretreatments on papaya drying kinetics was investi-
gated. The ultrasound pretreatment was carried out in an
ultrasonic bath at 30 °C. The osmotic pretreatment in su-
crose solution was carried out in an incubator at 34 °C and
agitation of 80 rpm for 210 min. The drying process was
conducted in a fixed bed dryer at 70 °C. Experimental data
were fitted successfully using the Page model for dried
fresh and pretreated fruits, with coefficient of determina-
tion greater than 0.9992 and average relative error lower
that 14.4 %. The diffusional model was used to describe
the moisture transfer, and the effective water diffusivity
was identified in the order of 10-9 m2 s-1. It was found
that drying rates of osmosed fruits were the lowest due to
the presence of infused solutes, while the ultrasound pre-
treatment contributed to faster drying rates. Evaluation of
the dried fruit was performed by means of total carotenoids
retention. Ultrasound treatments in distilled water prior to
air-drying gave rise to dried papayas with retention of
& Patrı́cia Moreira Azoubel
pazoubel@gmail.com
1
Departamento de Engenharia Quı́mica, Universidade Federal
de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Arthur de Sá, s/n, Cidade
Universitária, Recife, PE 50740-521, Brazil
2
Universidade Estadual da Bahia, Av. Edgard Chastinet
Guimarães, s/n, São Geraldo, Juazeiro, BA 48905-680, Brazil
3
Universidade de Pernambuco, FFPP, Av. Cardoso de Sá, 01,
Vila Eduardo, Petrolina, PE 56300-000, Brazil
4
Universidade de Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Dom
Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Dois Irmãos, Recife,
PE 52171-900, Brazil
5 antioxidant compounds present in these foods, which re-
Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Estadual Paulista
Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Caixa Postal 510, AC Rubião Júnior,
Botucatu, SP 18618-970, Brazil
carotenoids in the range 30.4–39.8 % and the ultrasonic-
assisted osmotic dehydration of papayas showed car-
otenoids retention values up to 64.9 %, whereas the dried
fruit without pretreatment showed carotenoids retention
lower than 24 %.
Keywords Carica papaya L.  Osmotic dehydration 
Sucrose  Water diffusivity  Page model
Introduction
Papaya is grown in nearly all countries of the tropical
Americas (Central and South America and the state of
Hawaii). It is also cultivated in India, Sri Lanka, various
Asian countries, as well as the Antilles and tropical Africa
[10].
Brazil stands out as the world’s biggest producer, sup-
plying 25 % of the world demand, followed by Mexico
with 14 %, Nigeria with 11 %, India and Indonesia with
10 %; other papaya growing countries include Venezuela,
China, Peru, Congo, and Ethiopia, all of which contribute
with less than 3 % of the papaya supply [9]. Brazil is the
world’s third biggest exporter of papaya [16] and the
principal markets for consumption are USA and Europe.
In recent years, consumption of fruits and vegetables has
increased considerably because of their benefits for good
health [57]. Many biochemical and epidemiological studies
have demonstrated that fruits and vegetables contribute to
the reduction of several diseases, including cardiovascular,
neurological and carcinogenic illnesses [51]. These benefits
have been attributed, at least in part, to the amount of
duce the oxidative stress produced by free radicals, and in
consequence, cellular damage [13]. One of the most

123

important antioxidant compounds present in fruits and
vegetables is the carotenoids [57].
Carotenoids are the most widespread group of the whole
class of natural pigments groups and are responsible for the
yellow, orange, and red colors of fruits, roots and vegeta-
bles [11, 44]. Papaya presents a red fleshy pulp with car-
otenoids accumulation during ripening [8]. Lycopene, b-
cryptoxanthin and b-carotene are the main carotenoids that
have been identified in papaya [49].
Fresh fruits are highly perishable, and processing is an
alternative to extent shelf life. The dehydration of foods is
one of the oldest techniques of preservation. The reduction
of moisture content and water activity to safe levels inhibits
microbial growth and enzymatic activity, increasing shelf
life, and also reducing weight for transportation and de-
manding a smaller space for storage [22, 27].
Forced convection drying is one of the most common
drying operations in the food industry, being a complex
process coupling heat and mass phenomena [3]. Drying of
fruits and vegetables is predominantly diffusion controlled
[26, 32, 46, 54], and drying rates are limited due to internal
resistances against the water removal and diffusion to the
surface. The increase of drying air temperature leads to
faster water mobility; however, it provokes quality loss in
the product and presents higher energy demand. Therefore,
the search for new strategies to improve water mobility
during convective drying constitutes a topic of relevant
research [36].
Ultrasound is a rapidly growing field of research, which
is finding increasing use in the food industry [24, 59]. It has
been used to enhance mass transfer in solid/liquid food
systems [5, 37, 58]. Ultrasonic waves can cause rapid series
of alternative compressions and expansions, in a similar
way to a sponge when it is squeezed and released repeat-
edly (sponge effect). In addition, ultrasound produces
cavitation, which may be helpful to remove strongly at-
tached moisture. The sponge effect caused by ultrasound
application may be responsible for the creation of micro-
scopic channels in porous materials, such as fruits, that
reduce the diffusion boundary layer, thus increasing the
convective mass transfer in the fruit [21, 52, 53].
Osmotic dehydration is the most reported pretreatment
used prior to air-drying [2, 4, 18, 29, 39], and it can be used
to improve nutritional, sensorial and functional properties
of food without changing the integrity of the foods [33, 55,
56]. However, among emerging new technologies, ultra-
sonically assisted osmotic dehydration is very promising
because the process can be carried out at low temperatures,
which reduces the probability of food degradation [31] and
permits the removal of moisture content from solids
without producing a liquid phase change [18].
Although some works report the study of ultrasound
pretreatment on drying [5, 17–19], the studies with papaya
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Food Eng Rev
are scarce, besides there is not any study which compares
the effects of the drying conditions on the total carotenoid
content of the fruit. The aim of this work was to investigate
the use of ultrasound and osmotic dehydration as pre-
treatments for drying and their effects on the mass transfer
and the moisture removal from papaya. Well-known
models were applied to papaya slices to demonstrate the
drying kinetics. The quality degradation in terms of total
carotenoids loss of papaya undergoing convective drying
was also studied.
Materials and Methods
Raw Material
Fresh papayas (‘Formosa’ variety) were obtained from the
local market of Juazeiro and Petrolina Counties, Brazil.
Prior to starting of each experiment, the fruits were thor-
oughly cleaned with running potable water, hand-peeled
and cut into slices (3.0 9 5.0 cm) with thickness of
0.5 cm, using cutters designed for this purpose, with the
seeds being removed. The initial total soluble solids con-
tent (determined by refractometry) was 10°–12° Brix, and
the average initial moisture content was 88.03 ± 0.44 %
w/w (gravimetrically measured using a vacuum oven at
70 °C for 24 h).
Osmotic Dehydration
The osmotic dehydration was based on a previous work
[15], in which a sucrose solution was used. Two slices of
papaya, previously weighed and identified, were placed in
600-mL beakers containing the osmotic solution (56 %,
w/w). A fruit/solution ratio of 1:10 was used. The beakers
were placed in an incubator (Tecnal, TE 421), maintained
at 34 °C and agitation at 80 rpm. After 210 min of ex-
periment, samples were taken out from the osmotic medi-
um, rinsed well to remove any excess of solution, drained
and then placed on a pre-weighed drying tray in order to
proceed to the drying process. After osmotic dehydration,
the water loss was around 52 % and solid gain less than
11 %, resulting in a sample with a moisture content of
65.69 ± 0.36 % (1.91 kg/kg dry basis).
Ultrasound Pretreatment
An experimental set consisting of two papaya samples
(approximately 20 g) was immersed in distilled water and
in 56 % (w/w) sucrose solution and both were submitted to
ultrasonic waves for 10, 20 and 30 min. These pretreatment
times were chosen after results of kinetics studies carried
out beforehand, in which it was observed that after 30 min
Food Eng Rev
the changes in water loss and solid gain were only slight.
The water to fruit ratio was maintained at 4:1 (weight
basis).
The experiments with ultrasound were carried out in
separate 250-mL Erlenmeyer flasks to avoid interference
between samples and runs. An ultrasonic bath with a
thermostat (Unique, model USC-2850A, Brazil) was used,
without mechanical agitation, and the temperature of the
liquid medium was maintained at 30 °C. Fluctuation of the
water temperature in the bath was prevented by circulation
of water. The temperature increase during the experiments
was lower than 2 °C after 30 min of ultrasound treatment.
The ultrasound frequency was 25 kHz, and the intensity
was 4870 W/m2. The ultrasound intensity was determined
by calorimetric method described by [30].
After removal from the solution, samples from each group
were drained, blotted with absorbent paper to remove excess
solution, weighted and submitted to drying. The moisture
content of the samples was gravimetrically measured using a
vacuum oven at 70 °C for 24 h (Tecnal, TE-395, Brazil). A
vacuum of 600 mm Hg was maintained inside the chamber.
The weight and moisture content data of each sample were
used to calculate the water loss (WL) and solid gain (SG).
Each experimental run was performed in triplicate, and the
reported values are based on average values.
Drying
Drying experiments were carried out in a continuous flow
fixed bed dryer (Sulab, Brazil) at constant air velocity of
2.0 m/s and at 70 °C. The dryer system consisted of ver-
tical air flow through trays and was arranged as a closed
circuit. To maintain constant air condition, only one tray
was used with a single layer of sample on it (approximately
100 g). For the air heating, three electric resistances were
used (two of 1600 W and one of 800 W), which could
work independently, controlled by a digital thermostat. A
thermal-hygrometer (Testo, model 635, Germany) was
used to measure the dry bulb temperature and the drying air
humidity. The air velocity was monitored using an
anemometer (Airflow, model LCS 6000, UK).
Sample moisture content during the air-drying process
was gravimetrically determined from the sample initial
moisture content (before air-drying process). Sample
weight was measured using a semi-analytical balance (Bel
Engineering SRL, model Mark, Italy). Weighing intervals
of 15 min were used during the first and the second hour of
processing and then 30 min intervals until the dynamic
equilibrium between the sample moisture content and
drying air humidity was reached, when the sample weight
became constant. Each drying experiment was carried out
in triplicate.
The Page model [38], which is an empirical modifica-
tion of the simple exponential model, was used to fit the
experimental drying data:
X  Xe
¼ expðk tn Þ ð1Þ
Xo  X e
where X is the average moisture content at time t, kg H2O/
kg dry matter; Xe is the equilibrium moisture content, kg
H2O/kg dry matter; Xo is the initial moisture content, kg
H2O/kg dry matter; k is the drying constant; n is the Page’s
parameter and t is the process time, s.
The regression was performed in Statistica [50] com-
puter program. The goodness of fit of the model was
characterized by the correlation coefficient (R2) and the
average relative error E (Eq. (2)).
N  
1X  Ve  Vp 
Eð%Þ ¼  100 ð2Þ
N i¼1  Ve 
where N is the number of experimental data, Ve is the
experimental value and Vp is the calculated value. Values
of E less than or equal to 10 % are considered to fit the
experimental data satisfactorily [28].
It has been accepted that the drying characteristics of
biological products in the falling rate period can be de-
scribed by using Fick’s diffusion equation. Although the
diffusivity equation is not the best equation to fit ex-
perimental data, it provides an approximate method to
present a common quantitative comparison between dif-
ferent products in the aspect of moisture transfer because it
can provide a description for average diffusion coefficient
in the entire drying process. The solution to this equation
developed by [12] can be used for various regularly shaped
bodies such as rectangular, cylindrical and spherical
products.
A solution for a slab of thickness 2L has been presented
by [12] under the assumption of (1) a uniform initial
moisture content, (2) constant effective diffusivity
throughout the solid, (3) negligible external resistances and
(4) negligible shrinkage:
X  Xe 8X 1
1 h t i
2 2
¼ 2 exp ð2i þ 1Þ p Deff
Xo  Xe p i¼0 ð2i þ 1Þ2 4L2
ð3Þ
where Deff is the effective diffusivity, m2/s; L is the half of
slab thickness, m.
The effective diffusivity was obtained by fitting the
experimental data to Fick’s diffusional model (Eq. (3)),
applying a nonlinear regression analysis of the Statistica
[50] software. Either the thickness of the fresh papaya or
the thickness of the ultrasonic pretreated papaya was as-
sumed as the initial dimension.
123

Determination of Total Carotenoids Content
The total carotenoid content was quantified based in the
methodology of [43] for dried (with and without pretreat-
ments) samples (up to 25 % moisture content, according to
Brazilian Legislation for dried fruits) and fresh fruit. In
brief, there was an acetone extraction, followed by a
separation and a dilution in hexane, finally measuring ab-
sorbance at 470 nm. Some precautions against pigment
degradation or alteration were taken, such as protection
from light and high temperatures, and the use of a short
analysis time. Total carotenoids were expressed as lg per g
of dry matter, and the percentage of loss was calculated,
taking into account the initial content of carotenoids in raw
papaya. All analysis was carried out in triplicate, and the
results were reported as an average (error less than 0.5 %).
Results and Discussion
Ultrasonic Pretreatment
The effect of ultrasonic pretreatment on water loss (WL)
and solid gain (SG) is presented in Table 1. Tukey test
showed that both water loss and solid gain were statisti-
cally different among the treatments.
During ultrasound in distilled water, the loss of solids
increased as immersion time was increased. Similar results
were found by [5] in the ultrasonic pretreatment of banana.
This was expected due to the concentration gradient, which
favors a mass transfer of solids from the fruit to the liquid
medium. As observed by [35] for malay apple, this was an
interesting result since the ultrasound pretreatment with
distilled water showed to be a process that lowers the
amount of soluble solids of the fruit, specially sugars and
that low sugar content fruit could be used in several
foodstuffs directed to consumers interested in products
with low sugar content.
The fruit submitted to ultrasound in distilled water also
showed a water loss rather than a water gain which could
be expected if only the mass transfer is considered. How-
ever, ultrasound application causes a series of rapid alter-
native compressions and expansion which can expel water
Table 1 Water loss (WL), Operating condition
solids gain (SG) and moisture
content (X) after ultrasound Ultrasound (distilled water)
pretreatment
Ultrasound (sucrose solution)
123
Food Eng Rev
from the fruit to the liquid medium, as observed by [19].
Similar trend was found by [41], which observed for the
ultrasonic treatment of sapota carried out with distilled
water that the water loss after 10 min was 5.2 %, but this
value decreased to 4.0 % when the fruit was subjected to
ultrasound for 30 min. The authors reported that this effect
may be influenced by the lower solid content of the fruit
after 30 min. Their results showed that water loss increased
with time only when a 70° Brix osmotic solution was
employed, which is consistent with the greater osmotic
pressure gradient of the system.
In the ultrasonic-assisted osmotic dehydration (Table 1),
the fruit gained solids from the medium and lost water to
the solution. Fernandes et al. [19, 20] and Rodrigues et al.
[41, 42] observed that a high osmotic pressure, as when an
osmotic solution of 50° Brix is employed, increases the rate
of cell breakdown, which combined to the sponge effect of
ultrasound may ease mass transfer from the osmotic solu-
tion toward the fruit, increasing the incorporation of sugar
by the fruit.
The water loss from the fruit was already expected,
since the use of a hypertonic solution tends to increase the
mass transfer of water from the fruit to the osmotic solution
due to the high concentration gradient.
Drying Characteristics
For comparison reasons, the dimensionless moisture con-
tent was calculated (up to the dynamic equilibrium point)
and its change during drying is presented in Fig. 1. As
expected, the moisture content decreased with drying time
and followed an exponential decay.
The mathematical modeling of the drying experimental
data using Eq. (1) for fresh and pretreated papaya is also
shown in Fig. 1. Table 2 shows Page’s parameters for the
papaya samples. It can be seen that the k parameter de-
creased when any osmotic pre-step was involved, while the
n parameter had an inverse behavior (except for the 30 min
ultrasound/osmotic pretreated sample). Abano et al. [1]
observed for carrots that the k parameter was fairly con-
stant for the control and ultrasound pretreated samples and
that the n parameter was higher for those pretreated sam-
ples. Azzouz et al. [6] concluded that n was a function of
Treatment time (min) WL (%) SG (%) X (%)
10 12.31 ± 0.46 0.97 ± 0.07 87.33 ± 0.39
20 9.98 ± 1.10 -1.67 ± 0.46 88.35 ± 0.44
30 6.77 ± 1.55 -2.28 ± 0.29 89.49 ± 0.42
10 7.69 ± 0.24 1.68 ± 0.03 88.21 ± 0.31
20 8.98 ± 1.31 1.01 ± 0.18 87.15 ± 0.20
30 11.45 ± 0.91 4.44 ± 0.29 82.03 ± 0.51
Food Eng Rev

(a) The agreement between the prediction and measured

1.0 Ultrasound 10 min- experimental values of Page model is good and this shows the suitability
Ultrasound 10 min- Page model of the model, which has been used to accurately simulate
Ultrasound 20 min- experimental
0.8 Ultrasound 20 min- Page model the drying curves of papaya [14], kiwi [48], cashew apple
Ultrasound 30 min- experimental
Ultrasound 30 min- Page model [4], litchi [23], among others.
(X-Xe)/(Xo-Xe)

Fresh- experimental
0.6 Fresh- Page model Fick’s parameters for fresh and pretreated papaya are
OD- experimental
OD- Page model shown in Table 3. The effective diffusivities of water
0.4 calculated using dimensionless moisture ratio (Eq. (3) for
the first 11 terms of the series) were significantly different
0.2 (p \ 0.05) among samples (except between samples im-
mersed in the osmotic solution and submitted to ultrasonic
0.0 waves for 10 and 30 min). Diffusivity was higher when the
0 20 40 60 80 100 papaya was pretreated in distilled water under ultrasonic
t (min) waves. This phenomenon happens due to the process of
(b) formation of micro-channels during application of ultra-
1.0 Ultrasound-OD 10 min- experimental sound and water could use the microscopic channels as an
Ultrasound-OD 10 min- Page model
Ultrasound-OD 20 min- experimental easier pathway to diffuse toward the surface of the fruit,
Ultrasound-OD 20 min- Page model
0.8 Ultrasound-OD 30 min- experimental contributing to the higher water diffusivity, as observed by
Ultrasound-OD 30 min- Page model [18]. These authors verified in microscopic images that the
Fresh- experimental
(X-Xe)/(Xo-Xe)

0.6 Fresh- Page model micro-channels were formed by the elongation and flat-
OD- experimental
OD- Page model tering of cell in some regions of the melons submitted to
0.4 ultrasound and that no cell breakdown was observed in the
samples.
0.2
It was observed that the water diffusivity of papaya
submitted to ultrasonic waves in distilled water decreased
0.0
in the first 10 min and then increased afterward. Similar
0 20 40 60 80 100 trend was observed by [17] for banana.
t (min) The physical and chemical changes in the fruit slices
during osmosis caused differences in drying rates. Pre-
Fig. 1 Modelling of drying kinetics using Page’s model for: a fresh,
ultrasonic in distilled water; b fresh, ultrasonic-assisted osmotic treating papayas using osmotic dehydration resulted in a
dehydration in sucrose solution and osmotic (OD) pretreated papaya water effective diffusivity of 1.21 9 10-9 m2 s-1, which
was lower than the water diffusivity of the fresh fruit
(2.78 9 10-9 m2 s-1). Moisture is bound within the solid
Table 2 Page’s equation parameters and statistical results for fresh,
matrix in many ways (capillaries, physico-chemical bond-
pretreated with ultrasound in distilled water for 10 min (U10), 20 min
(U20) and 30 min (U30), ultrasound in sucrose solution for 10 min ing to the solid constituents). Hence, the observed
(OD-U10), 20 min (OD-U20) and 30 min (OD-U30) and osmotically
dehydrated samples (OD)
Table 3 Fick’s equation parameters and statistical results for fresh,
Sample k n R2 p (%) pretreated with ultrasound in distilled water for 10 min (U10), 20 min
(U20) and 30 min (U30), ultrasound in sucrose solution for 10 min
Fresh 0.0241 0.5910 0.9998 11.1404
(OD-U10), 20 min (OD-U20) and 30 min (OD-U30) and osmotically
U10 0.0408 0.5128 0.9999 3.1004 dehydrated samples (OD)
U20 0.0373 0.5545 0.9998 11.7137
Sample Deff 9 109 (m2 s-1) R2 p (%)
U30 0.0529 0.5173 0.9999 12.6716
OD 0.0032 0.7796 0.9999 3.8857 Fresh 2.7824 0.9921 44.9474
OD-U10 0.0183 0.5969 0.9998 4.3258 U10 2.6169 0.9846 47.4727
OD-U20 0.0145 0.6429 0.9998 7.2468 U20 3.6201 0.9944 55.3241
OD-U30 0.0240 0.5763 0.9992 14.3775 U30 4.0757 0.9947 60.2536
OD 1.2075 0.9991 79.6633
OD-U10 2.3281 0.9874 43.9022
air velocity and initial moisture content, while k was a
OD-U20 2.2974 0.9932 33.4544
function of air temperature and initial moisture content of
OD-U30 2.3281 0.9873 38.6921
grapes.

123

differences in drying rates may be related to the solute
uptake that occurs in the osmotic process (solids gain was
around 11 %), which resulted in an increased internal re-
sistance to mass transfer, as observed by [40] for pineapple,
by [25] for apple, by [4] for cashew apple.
The water effective diffusivity of osmotic pretreated
samples increased when they were submitted to ultrasonic
waves; however, it was still lower than the effective
diffusivity obtained with the ultrasonic process carried out
with distilled water. [35] observed that the ultrasonic
pretreatment of malay apple using an osmotic solution of
50° Brix also reduced the water effective diffusivity if
compared to the fresh fruit with no pretreatment, which
was caused by the saturation of the surface of the fruit
with sucrose, creating an extra resistance for mass
transfer.
Comparison of diffusivities reported in the literature is
difficult because of the different estimation methods and
models employed together with the variation in food
composition and physical structure and experimental
methodology. However, the obtained effective diffusivity
values were in the same range as those reported in the
literature for banana [7, 17, 34] without considering
shrinkage. However, analyzing Table 3, Fick’s model
without shrinkage showed a bad fit, what can be attributed
to the fact that moisture transfer during drying of food
generally does not satisfy the assumed simplifications in
the solution of the Fick’s second law: the food product has
a heterogeneous cellular structure; mass transfer is not
unidirectional; diffusion can occur under several mechan-
isms; product temperature increases during drying; and
product shrinkage is observed.
The ultrasound application for drying therefore offer a
distinct advantage, as this will optimize processing time,
reducing drying time and costs, and ultimately increasing
overall productivity, as observed by [1, 5, 18, 20] for ul-
trasonic-assisted drying of melon, pineapple, banana and
carrot.
Total Carotenoids Loss
Carotenoids present in fresh tissue are very stable. How-
ever, when those products are processed, carotenoids
become very unstable by the action of heat, light and
oxygen. Table 4 shows the carotenoid loss (CL) for fresh
and pretreated dried papaya samples. ANOVA and Tukey
test were carried out to compare the results and showed
that statistical difference (p \ 0.05) exists between the
treatments.
The pretreatment samples showed lower carotenoid loss
than the untreated ones, mainly when osmotic dehydration
was involved. Sanjinez-Argadoña et al. [45] reported that
123
Food Eng Rev
Table 4 Dried papaya car- Sample CL (%)
otenoid loss (CL) for fresh,
pretreated with ultrasound in Fresh 76.35
distilled water for 10 min
U10 60.24
(U10), 20 min (U20) and
30 min (U30), ultrasound in U20 63.11
sucrose solution for 10 min U30 69.62
(OD-U10), 20 min (OD-U20) OD 42.57
and 30 min (OD-U30) and os-
motically dehydrated samples OD-U10 44.24
(OD) OD-U20 35.11
OD-U30 54.35
dried guavas samples without osmotic pretreatment showed
a more pronounced carotenoid degradation, probably due
to cellular tissue damage and increased exposure to oxy-
gen, which resulted in pigment degradation, while the os-
motically pretreated sample had a formation of a sugar
barrier layer at the product surface, limiting the contact
between the fruit and the oxygen, reducing carotenoid
oxidation, as previously observed by [47].
For the samples immersed in distilled water and sub-
mitted to ultrasonic waves, the carotenoid loss was lower
than the untreated samples, but higher than when the fruit
was immersed in sucrose solution. In this case, there was
no sugar barrier formed to prevent oxidation and, conse-
quently, drying time has gained importance. The time re-
quired to obtain the desired final moisture of 25 % (wet
basis), according to Brazilian Legislation for dried fruits,
decreased for the samples pretreated in ultrasound in dis-
tilled water, causing the reduction of the product exposure
to the air, and thus, the lower carotenoid losses than the
untreated papaya.
Conclusion
Osmosed samples had lower drying rates, requiring more
time to reach the same final moisture content as fresh and
ultrasound pretreated papaya, due to the higher solute up-
take during osmotic dehydration. However, those samples
had the lower carotenoid loss. The agreement between the
predicted and experimental data of papaya for the Page
model was good. Page model can be used to assess the
drying behavior of the fruit. The water effective diffusivity,
which varied from 1.21 to 4.08 9 10-9 m2 s-1, increased
when the ultrasound stage was applied. The ultrasound
application represents an interesting alternative to tradi-
tional convective drying by shortening drying time, which
may involve an energy saving concerning industrial
applications.
Acknowledgments The authors gratefully the financial aid of
FACEPE (State of Pernambuco Science and Technology Foundation).
Food Eng Rev
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