Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 413–417

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

The effects of dipping pretreatments on air-drying rates of

the seedless grapes
I_ brahim Doymaz *, Mehmet Pala
Yildiz Technical University, Chemical Engineering Department, Davutpasa Cad No. 127, 34210 Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey
Received 20 April 2001; accepted 30 June 2001

Abstract
Turkey has a significant potential for fruit and vegetable production. Grape is an economically important item for Turkey’s
export. However, problems encountered during drying of grapes have not yet been resolved. The effects of different dipping solutions
on hot air drying of grapes were studied. Seedless grapes pretreated with alkaline emulsion of ethyl oleate (AEEO) resulted in
comparatively good quality raisins. Grapes dipped into ethyl oleate solution prior to drying showed shorter drying times than those
untreated, or pretreated with potassium carbonate solution. Colour analysis of grapes showed that the best results are obtained in
grapes which were pretreated with an AEEO and dried with air at 60
C. The drying rates of grapes were modeled by the Page and
Exponential equations. The model results agreed with experimental results.  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Grape; Hot-air drying; Pretreatment solution; Mathematical models

1. Introduction Saygi, & Sadıkoglu, 1993; Raouzeos & Saravacos, 1986;

Dried grapes, commonly known as raisins, have a
great economic importance for Turkey (250,000 t were
produced in 1998). In Turkey, the majority of seedless
grapes, including Sultana and Thompson varieties, are
cultivated in the Aegean region. In this region, harvested
grapes are traditionally dipped into pretreatment solu-
tions (5–6% (v/v) potassium carbonate in 0.5% (v/v)
olive oil solution) and sun-dried on canvas sheets or
concrete surfaces.
In grape drying, the rate of moisture diffusion
through the berries is controlled by the waxy cuticle of
the grapes (Pangavhane, Sawhney, & Sarsavadia, 1999).
A number of authors have reported the effects of pre-
treatments on the drying rates and quality parameters of
various foodstuffs. Some experimental results on grape
drying are reported in the literature (Aguilera, Opper-
mann, & Sanchez, 1987; Bolin, Petrucci, & Fuller, 1975;
Guadagni, Stafford, & Fuller, 1975; Karathanos & Be-
lessiotis, 1997; Mahmutoglu, Emir, & Saygi, 1996; Pala,
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-212-449-1718; fax: +90-212-449-
1895.
E-mail address: doymaz@yildiz.edu.tr (I_ . Doymaz).
0260-8774/02/$ - see front matter  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 2 6 0 - 8 7 7 4 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 3 3 - 9
Saravacos, Marousis, & Raouzeos, 1988; Tulasidas,
Raghavan, & Norris, 1996). Dipping in hot water or
the use of chemicals such as sulphur, caustic and ethyl
or methyl oleate emulsions are some of pretreatments
widely used for grape drying. The aim of using those
pretreatment solutions is to increase drying rates and to
produce raisins of the desired quality level. Grapes were
surface treated by dipping in ethyl oleate, which greatly
increases the drying rate by altering the waxy layer
structure at the grape surface, thus reducing the internal
resistance to water diffusion (Di Matteo, Cinquanta,
Galiero, & Crescitelli, 2000; Doymaz, 1998; Petrucci,
Canata, Bolin, Fuller, & Stafford, 1973; Ponting &
McBean, 1970; Riva & Peri, 1986). Ethyl oleate evidently
acts on grape skin by dissolving the waxy components
which offer a high resistance to moisture transfer, yet
higher alkali concentrations and longer dipping times
can cause adverse changes in the quality of dried grapes
(Saravacos et al., 1988).
In this study, the rate and time of drying in a hot-air
drier and the colour of the final product were investi-
gated. Furthermore, the influence of dipping solutions
such as ethyl oleate and potassium carbonate were
studied. Also, drying time and colour quality of dried
untreated grapes were compared with those pretreated
with dipping solutions.
414 I_ . Doymaz, M. Pala / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 413–417

Nomenclature

c constant in Eq. (2) M0 initial moisture content (kg water/kg mass)

Deff effective moisture transfer diffusion coeffi- R radius (m)
cient ðm2 =sÞ t drying time (min)
K constant in Eq. (2) x constant in Eq. (3)
M moisture content (kg water/kg dry mass) y constant in Eq. (3)
Me equilibrium moisture content (kg water/kg
dry mass)

1.1. Mathematical modeling size (1.8–2.4 g) were used. The initial moisture content
of grapes varied from 77.3% to 80.5%, wet basis.
For a sphere, the solution of Fick’s second law, with Chemicals used for dipping grape were technical grade.
the assumptions of moisture migration being by diffu-
sion, negligible shrinkage, constant temperature and 2.2. Methods
diffusion coefficients and long drying times is as given
below (Di Matteo et al., 2000; Mahmutoglu et al., 1996; Drying of Sultana grapes was carried out in cabinet
T€ut€
unc€
u & Labuza, 1996): drier produced by APV&PASILAC firm (England).
     2  During drying experiments, the moisture content of
M
Me 6 p Deff t
ln ¼ ln
: ð1Þ fresh and dried grapes, air flow rate and colour pa-
M0
Me p2 R2
rameters L (lightness), +a (redness) and +b (yellowness)
Eq. (1) can also be written in a more simplified form as: were measured according to AOAC (1990), TESTO 440
M
Me Vane probe Anemometer and Hunter Lab Colour D 25
¼ K expð
ctÞ: ð2Þ D2P, respectively.
M0
Me
Eq. (2) is known to be the Exponential equation (Exp.). 2.3. Drying experiments
An alternative approach to analysis of thin layer drying
has been to use empirical relationships. One equation Grapes were dipped in several solutions and dried
that has been widely used in thin layer drying studies is afterward. Pretreatment solutions and the associated
Page’s equation (Diamante & Munro, 1993; Madamba, code numbers are given below:
Driscoll, & Buckle, 1996).
M
Me • POTAS: Traditional potassium carbonate solution:
¼ expð
xty Þ: ð3Þ This solution is prepared by dissolving 0:5 kg
M0
Me
K2 CO3 in 10 l water and adding 0.05 kg olive oil.
The values of the equilibrium moisture content, Me , are • AEEO: Alkaline emulsion of ethyl oleate: AEEO is
relatively small compared to M or M0 . Thus prepared by dissolving 0:5 kg K2 CO3 in 10 l water
ðM
Me Þ=ðM0
Me Þ is simplified to M=M0 and adding 0.2 kg ethyl oleate.
M
¼ K expð
ctÞ; ð4Þ
M0 Dipping time in the pretreatment solutions was about 1
M min at ambient temperature. Then, grapes were dried as
¼ expð
xty Þ: ð5Þ a single layer in a batch drier. In this drier, air flow is
M0
perpendicular to the grape berries. Grapes were dried
To calculate diffusion coefficients ðDeff Þ, the slope of at air temperatures of 50
C, 55
C, 60
C and 70
C and
lnðM=M0 Þ versus time, as given by Eq. (1), was used the air velocity was 1.2 m/s. Also untreated grapes were
(Lomauro, Bakshi, & Labuza, 1985; T€
ut€unc€u & Labuza, dried (code NAT) at 60
C and 70
C air temperatures.
1996). In each experiment, 1 kg of fresh grapes was used.
Weight loss of the drying grapes was measured by means
of a load cell (REVERE SHBXM CC). The drying was
2. Materials and methods concluded when the final moisture content was 0.2 kg/kg
dry mass. The product was cooled and packed in low
2.1. Materials density polyethylene (LDPE) bags which were heat-
sealed. The experiments was repeated twice and the
The Sultana seedless (Vitis vinifera L.) variety of average of the moisture ratio at each value was used for
grapes was used. Generally, grape berries of uniform drawing the drying curves.
 I_ . Doymaz, M. Pala / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 413–417 415

3. Results and discussion

Drying time of each experiment, diffusion and cor-

relation coefficients are given in Table 1. Fig. 1 shows
drying curves of grapes pretreated differently and dried
at 60
C.
Grapes dipped in AEEO or POTAS solution prior
to drying were found to have a shorter drying time
compared to untreated grapes (Table 1). Grapes dipped
in AEEO and POTAS solutions and dried at 60
C air
temperature had a drying time of 1230 and 1320 min,
respectively, whereas untreated grapes had a drying time
of 2880 min (Table 1, Fig. 1). These results demon-
strated that AEEO grapes had drying times that were
7.3% shorter than POTAS code and 134.1% shorter than
NAT code grapes. Similarly, when the drying times of
grapes with POTAS code and NAT code grapes were
compared, the drying time for POTAS code grapes was
118% lower than that for NAT code grapes. Conse-
quently, AEEO solution is much more effective than
POTAS solution in grape drying.
One of the most important criteria of foods is colour.
Undesirable changes in colour of food may lead to a
decrease in its quality and marketing value. The results
of the drying experiments have shown that pretreat-
ments have also an important effect on the colour pa-
rameters of the final dried products (Table 2). In terms
of desired colour properties, higher L and lower a=b
ratio are preferred. Hunter L (lightness) values of grapes
dipped in AEEO solution were in most cases higher than
those for grapes dipped in POTAS and naturally dried
grapes. For example, the values of L were 21.03, 20.29
and 17.74 for grapes dried at 60
C, respectively.
The value of a=b, which is a measurement of the
redness/yellowness colour, was 0.74, 0.81 and 1.05, re-
spectively. Therefore, grapes with AEEO and POTAS
codes are lighter and brighter than those with NAT code
by 18.54% and 14.3%, respectively.
The values reported in Table 2 show that L values
increase with increasing temperature, whereas the a=b
Fig. 1. Drying curves of grapes dried at 60
C after different pre-
treatments.
values did not show this correlation. Lowest values
for a=b were found for AEEO pretreated grapes dried
at 60
C.
In order to estimate the moisture content as a func-
tion of drying time, the empirical Page and Exponential
equations were fitted and correlation coefficients were
calculated in this study. The values of r2 obtained from
the Page Eq. (5) are higher than those attained from the
Exponential Eq. (4). The r2 values of the Page equation
vary between 0.995 and 0.999, and between 0.973 and
0.995 for the Exponential equation (Table 1). Both
equations represent the correlation between the mois-
ture content and drying time. Fig. 2 shows the experi-
mental and fitted drying curves.
The diffusion coefficients of grapes dipped in AEEO
were higher than those with POTAS and NAT codes.
For example, the diffusion coefficients ðDeff Þ of grapes
dried at 60
C were 2:01  10
9 , 1:82  10
9 , and 9:10 
10
10 m2 =s, respectively (Table 1). Based on these
results, 2%AEEO þ 5%K2 CO3 solution (AEEO) was
found to be the most effective dipping solution in in-
creasing the drying rate compared with a 5%K2 CO3 þ
0:5% olive oil solution (POTAS).

Table 1
Drying times of experiments, diffusion and correlation coefficients
Code Air temperature (
C) Drying time (min) r2 Deff ðm2 =sÞ
Page Exp.
AEEO 50 2040 0.996 0.975 8:49  10
10
55 1740 0.997 0.985 1:32  10
9
60 1230 0.997 0.985 2:01  10
9
70 810 0.999 0.995 3:50  10
9
POTAS 50 2430 0.995 0.973 7:91  10
10
55 1830 0.995 0.973 1:19  10
9
60 1320 0.998 0.991 1:82  10
9
70 870 0.995 0.990 2:54  10
9
NAT 60 2880 0.997 0.987 9:10  10
10
70 1080 0.995 0.993 1:92  10
9
416 I_ . Doymaz, M. Pala / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 413–417

Table 2
Colour analysis of dried grapes
Code Air temperature (
C) Hunter colour values
L +a +b a=b
AEEO 50 18.95 3.04 3.84 0.79
55 19.30 3.99 4.80 0.83
60 21.03 5.08 6.84 0.74
70 22.75 5.23 6.65 0.78
POTAS 50 17.57 3.84 4.28 0.89
55 19.56 3.97 4.32 0.91
60 20.29 4.55 5.57 0.81
70 22.31 4.53 5.29 0.86
NAT 60 17.74 2.29 2.18 1.05
70 19.55 4.74 5.43 0.87

that of the untreated grapes. When the drying rates of

grapes are modeled by the Page and Exponential equa-
tions, the results agree satisfactorily with experimental
results.

Acknowledgements

This research work was supported by Yildiz University

Research Fund under the grant number 92-B-07-01-01.

References

Aguilera, J. M., Oppermann, K., & Sanchez, F. (1987). Kinetics of

Fig. 2. Experimental and fitted drying curves for grapes dipped in
AEEO solution and dried at 60
C.
Higher drying rates are observed for all grapes dipped
into ethyl oleate solution. The reason can be ascribed to
the ethyl oleate. Ethyl oleate destroys the resistance of
waxy layer which prevents moisture transfer and in-
creases the drying rate.
4. Conclusions
The effect of AEEO and potassium carbonate (PO-
TAS) solutions on hot air drying of grapes was studied.
Grapes dipped in AEEO or POTAS solution were
found to have shorter drying times compared with un-
treated grapes. The AEEO dipping increased the drying
rates more than the potassium carbonate pretreatment,
and improved the quality and appearance of the dried
grapes. Pretreatment with the AEEO solution is effective
in increasing the drying rate. However, it should be
noted that this pretreatment is more effective in in-
creasing the drying rate during the early period of dry-
ing. The use of ethyl oleate as pretreatment solution for
the drying of grapes leads to a better colour (L and a=b
values). Colour of the treated grapes was lighter than
browning of Sultana grapes. Journal of Food Science, 52, 990–993.
AOAC (1990). Official methods of analysis. In K. Heldrich (Ed.),
Association of official analytical chemists (15th ed.). Washington,
USA, p. 1298.
Bolin, H. R., Petrucci, V., & Fuller, G. (1975). Characteristics of
mechanically harvested raisins produced by dehydration and by
field drying. Journal of Food Science, 40, 1036–1038.
Diamante, L. M., & Munro, P. A. (1993). Mathematical modeling of
the thin layer solar drying of sweet potato slices. Solar Energy,
51(4), 271–276.
Di Matteo, M., Cinquanta, L., Galiero, G., & Crescitelli, S. (2000).
Effect of a novel physical pretreatment process on the drying
kinetics of seedless grapes. Journal of Food Engineering, 46, 83–89.
Doymaz, I_ . (1998). Investigation of drying characteristics of grape and
Kahramanmaras pepper. Ph.D. Thesis, Science Institute, Yildiz
Technical University, Istanbul.
Guadagni, D. G., Stafford, A. E., & Fuller, G. (1975). Taste thresholds
of fatty acid esters in raisins and raisin paste. Journal of Food
Science, 40, 780–783.
Karathanos, V. T., & Belessiotis, V. G. (1997). Sun and artificial air
drying kinetics of some agricultural products. Journal of Food
Engineering, 31, 35–46.
Lomauro, C. J., Bakshi, A. S., & Labuza, T. P. (1985). Moisture
transfer properties of dry and semimoist foods. Journal of Food
Science, 50, 397–400.
Madamba, P. S., Driscoll, R. H., & Buckle, K. A. (1996). The thin-
layer drying characteristics of garlic slices. Journal of Food
Engineering, 29, 75–97.
Mahmutoglu, T., Emir, F., & Saygi, Y. B. (1996). Sun/Solar drying of
differently treated grapes and storage stability of dried grapes.
Journal of Food Engineering, 29, 289–300.
 I_ . Doymaz, M. Pala / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 413–417
Pala, M., Saygi, Y. B., & Sadıkoglu, H. (1993). A study on the drying
of Sultana grapes by different techniques and effective parameters.
In G. Charalambous (Ed.). Food flavors, ingredients and composi-
tion (pp. 437–444). Amsterdam.
Pangavhane, D. R., Sawhney, R. L., & Sarsavadia, P. N. (1999). Effect
of various dipping pretreatment on drying kinetics of Thompson
seedless grapes. Journal of Food Engineering, 39, 211–216.
Petrucci, V., Canata, N., Bolin, H. R., Fuller, G., & Stafford, A. E.
(1973). Use of oleic acid derivatives to accelerate drying of
Thompson seedless grapes. Journal of The American Oil Chemists’
Society, 51, 77–80.
Ponting, J. D., & Mc Bean, D. M. (1970). Temperature and dipping
treatment effects on drying rates and drying times of grapes, prunes
and other waxy fruits. Food Technology, 24, 85–88.
417
Raouzeos, G. S., & Saravacos, G. D. (1986). Solar drying of raisins.
Drying Technology, 4(4), 633–649.
Riva, M., & Peri, C. (1986). Kinetics of sun and air drying of different
varieties of seedless grapes. Journal of Food Technology, 21, 199–
208.
Saravacos, G. D., Marousis, S. N., & Raouzeos, G. S. (1988). Effect of
ethyl oleate on the rate of air-drying of foods. Journal of Food
Engineering, 7, 263–270.
Tulasidas, T. N., Raghavan, G. S. V., & Norris, E. R. (1996). Effects of
dipping and washing pre-treatments on microwave drying of
grapes. Journal of Food Process Engineering, 19, 15–25.
T€
ut€
unc€u, A. M., & Labuza, T. P. (1996). Effect of geometry on the
effective moisture transfer diffusion coefficient. Journal of Food
Engineering, 30, 433–447.