International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59 53

The effect of the method of drying on the colour of dehydrated

products

Magdalini K. Krokida, Zacharias B. Maroulis & George D. Saravacos*

Department of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece.
(Received 23 September1999; Accepted in revised form 7 March 2000)

Summary We tested the hypothesis that an optimum method of drying fruit could be designed.The effect
of the method used for drying on colour of apple, banana, potato and carrot was investigated
for five different methods of drying: conventional, vacuum, microwave, freeze and osmotic
drying. Colour characteristics were studied by measuring lightness (L), redness (a) and yellow-
ness (b) using a Hunter Lab chromatometer.The method used to dry the material was found to
significantly affect the three colour parameters. The changes in redness (a) and yellowness (b)
were found to follow a first order kinetic model. Air-, vacuum- and microwave-dried materials
caused extensive browning in the fruits and vegetables, this was manifested by a significant
drop of the L parameter and an increase of the a and b parameters. Osmotically pretreated
samples did not brown as much as the untreated samples and the value for lightness (L) de-
creased only slightly while a and b increased slightly. Freeze drying seems to prevent colour
changes, resulting in products with improved colour characteristics.
Keywords Freeze-drying, fruits, microwave, osmotic, vacuum, vegetables.

during air drying, and the final product has low

Introduction
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the
quality of foods during drying. Both the method of
drying and physicochemical changes that occur in
tissues during drying affect the quality of the dehy-
drated product. More specifically, the method used
for drying affects properties such as colour, texture,
density, porosity and sorption characteristics of ma-
terials (Yang & Atallah, 1985; Krokida et al., 1998).
Several methods to dry fruits and vegetables have
been proposed in the literature, so that high quality
and convenient products are produced efficiently at
competitive cost (Saravacos, 1993).
Conventional air drying is one of the most fre-
quently used operations for food dehydration. Final
products are characterized by low porosity and high
apparent density. Significant colour changes occur
*Correspondent: Fax: +30-1-772 3155;
e-mail: maroulis@chemeng.ntua.gr
sorption capacity (Maroulis et al., 1988).
Vacuum-dried materials are characterized by
higher tissue porosity, depending on drying pres-
sure, and less damage of colour and volatile aroma.
Osmotic dehydration minimizes the thermal da-
mage on colour and flavour, prevents enzymatic
browning, thus limiting the need to use sulfur diox-
ide and increases nutrient retention during subse-
quent air drying (Pointing, 1973; Islam & Flink,
1982).
Freeze drying is one of the most advanced dehy-
dration methods, which provides dry products with
porous structure (Karathanos et al., 1996) com-
bined with small or negligible shrinkage, superior
flavour and aroma retention and improved rehydra-
tion behaviour compared to products of the alterna-
tive drying processes: air, vacuum, microwave and
osmotic drying (Le Loch-Bonazzi et al., 1992).
As a result, by choosing a suitable drying method
and the appropriate conditions, the final product
quality can be controlled.

ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd

54 Effect of drying method on colour Magdalini K. Krokida et al.
The colour of foods is important to their accept-
ability. In a large-scale consumer study with orange
juices, 40% of all grade points were related to colour
(Eagerman, 1978). Instrumental techniques have
been applied to obtain objective colour evaluation.
Plant tissues such as apple, banana, carrot and
potato exhibit extensive browning during their dry-
ing and subsequent storage. The kinetics of brown-
ing has been studied by Bolin & Steele (1987) and
Sapers & Ziolkowski (1987). Bolin & Steele (1987)
used low oxygen pressure or sulfur dioxide proces-
sing to avoid the oxidative type of non-enzymatic
browning which, as they showed, accounts for 60^
70% of the total browning during storage. Sapers &
Ziolkowski (1987) added erythorbic or ascorbic acid
to eliminate the enzymatic browning of cut surfaces
of apples in order to eliminate the use of sulfur diox-
ide from treatment prior to drying. Sulfur dioxide is
a good colour preservative of fresh fruits and vegeta-
bles, as it retards both enzymatic and non-enzy-
matic browning reactions, but its extensive use in
foods has been challenged, mainly for human health
reasons.
Colour deterioration has been studied by several
researchers for a number of products. Steet & Tong
(1996) studied the kinetics of chlorophyll loss in
green peas by tristimulus (L, a, b parameters) chro-
matometry and also by HPLC.They reported a first-
order reaction for this substance. The a parameter,
usually referred to as the greenness parameter, was
chosen as the most sensitive physical property to
measure. Krokida et al. (1998) studied the effect of
temperature and air-relative humidity on colour
changes during air drying. Rocha et al. (1993) stu-
died the effect of pretreatments on drying rate and
colour retention of basil.
The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis
that an optimum drying method for a range of plant
tissue could be found by use of three Hunter para-
meters, lightness (L), redness (a) and yellowness (b)
of dehydrated apple, banana, potato and carrot, dur-
ing five different drying methods (conventional, va-
cuum, microwave, freeze and osmotic drying).
Mathematical modelling
In order to determine the rate of colour changes dur-
ing drying, kinetics of the Hunter parameters, red-
ness (a), yellowness (b) and lightness (L) were
investigated. It is assumed that each parameter fol-
International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59
lows first order kinetics which is given by the follow-
ing equation:
C Ce
ˆ exp kc t† 1†
Co Ce
where C is the colour parameter (a, b, L), Co and Ce q1
are the corresponding initial and equilibrium va-
lues, kc is the rate constant (min21) of each colour
parameter, and t is the drying time (min).
The values of the required parameters were deter-
mined by fitting the proposed model to the experi-
mental data, by minimising the following residual
sum of squares:
" #1=2
X
N
RC ˆ Ci Ci †2 = N p† 2†
iˆ1
q2
where Ci and Ci* are the experimental and the cal-
culated values of colour parameters, N is the num-
ber of experimental points and p is the number of
estimated parameters.
Materials and methods
Fresh apples, bananas, carrots and potatoes were
used as test materials. The water and sugar content
as a percentage of the total solids for these plant tis-
sues are given by Lee et al. (1970).
Samples were dehydrated using five different de-
hydration techniques: conventional air drying; va-
cuum drying; microwave pre-treatment plus
conventional drying; freeze drying; osmotic pre-
treatment plus conventional drying.
Typical conditions have been chosen for each
method as follows. For conventional drying, sam-
ples were cut into cylinders of approximately 20
mm diameter and 10 mm height and dried in an air
dryer at 70 6 0.2 8C and ,7% air-relative humidity,
the pressure being regulated at 1 bar 6 3%.
Vacuum drying was achieved by use of a vacuum
dryer at 70 6 0.2 8C and 33 mbar 6 3%, while the
samples dimensions as for conventional drying.
Microwave pretreatment, for 1 min in a micro-
wave dryer at atmospheric pressure and 810 W
power, used samples of the same dimensions as for
conventional and vacuum drying. All samples were
then dried in the air dryer at 70 6 0.2 8C and ,7%
air relative humidity.
Materials for freeze drying were cut in cylinders
of approximately 20 mm diameter and 8 mm height.
ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd
 Effect of drying method on colour Magdalini K. Krokida et al. 55

They were frozen at ^35 8C for 48 h, tempered for1h
in liquid N2, and freeze dried for 24 h using a Lyovac
Gt 2 laboratory freeze dryer (Leybold Heraeus
GmbH, Cologne, Germany). Freeze drying was per-
formed under high (0.04 mbar) vacuum conditions,
to obtain an initial sample temperature near to the
glass transition temperature of the tissues (Tg = ^
45 8C).
Apples and bananas were used for osmotic pre-
treatment. Apples were cut in cylinders of 8 mm dia-
meter and 30 mm height, while bananas were cut in
cylinders of 20 mm diameter and 8 mm height.They
were weighed and immersed in sucrose solution
(50%, 40 8C). After 10 h, the osmotically dehydrated
samples were dried in an air oven at 70 8C.
Samples, dehydrated with different techniques,
were removed from the dryers at various interval
times and measured for colour.
Colour measurements
Eight samples, two of each material, were removed
from the dryer at various intervals time and their
colour (L, a, b) was measured with a HunterLab
SAV colorimeter (HunterLab Inc., Reston, VA,
USA). The instrument was standardized each time
with a white and a black ceramic plate. Samples were
scanned at five different locations to determine the
average L, a, b values as the average of the five mea-
surements.
Results and discussion
Colour parameters
A first order kinetic model (equation 1) was fitted to
experimental data for each of the three colour para-
meters. The results are summarized in Table 1. Each
set of parameters corresponds to a different materi-
al, a different drying method and a different colour
parameter.The corresponding values of the residual
sum of squares Rj (j = L, a, b) are also given in
Table 1.
The experimental and calculated values (equation
1) of lightness (L), redness (a) and yellowness (b) for
apple, banana, potato and carrot during the five dry-
ing methods are shown in Figs 1^3, respectively.
The variation of the lightness parameter (L) dur-
ing drying is unclear, owing to significant experi-
mental error (. 10%). However, some conclusions
result from these data. As shown in Fig. 1, the L

Table 1 Parameter estimation for

Material Lightness (L) Redness (a) Yellowness (b)
color parameters
Drying method Lo Le kL RL ao ae ka Ra bo be kb Rb

Apple
Conv. drying 57.0 64.8 2.90 0.83 ^1.01 6.69 0.31 0.21 10.2 20.2 0.57 0.20
Vacuum drying 58.3 50.0 0.08 0.77 ^0.96 7.43 0.20 0.12 10.1 22.1 0.41 0.11
Microwaves 58.6 0 0 0.65 ^0.85 4.73 0.26 0.14 11.2 18.7 0.30 0.16
Freeze drying 57.1 76.7 0.16 0.81 ^0.40 0.97 0.21 0.17 11.3 16.2 0.57 0.13
Osmotic deh. 39.7 0 0 0.65 ^0.07 1.12 0.28 0.20 12.7 16.2 1.07 0.12
Banana
Conv. drying 43.0 10.0 0.05 0.92 1.38 40.9 0.02 0.11 13.5 18.3 0.13 0.14
Vacuum drying 47.3 13.8 0.03 0.95 1.01 44.2 0.02 0.10 13.2 17.4 0.15 0.12
Microwaves 43.0 10.0 0.05 0.68 ^0.27 9.57 0.10 0.09 10.0 17.6 0.14 0.20
Freeze drying 48.5 53.6 0.78 0.77 1.93 3.56 0.27 0.14 13.6 13.7 0.06 0.15
Osmotic deh. 33.6 0 0 0.82 2.47 3.71 0.30 0.15 10.1 12.7 0.08 0.12
Potato
Conv. drying 55.4 45.0 0.09 0.66 ^1.56 29.9 0.04 0.12 8.85 16.0 0.48 0.09
Vacuum drying 55.6 45.9 0.08 0.68 ^1.06 35.3 0.02 0.10 7.08 13.1 0.36 0.11
Microwaves 55.0 40.0 0.1 0.85 ^0.99 35.0 0.03 0.09 4.62 15.1 0.46 0.12
Freeze drying 55.0 66.7 0.31 0.91 ^0.84 5.07 0.06 0.08 6.56 12.8 0.14 0.13
Carrot
Conv. drying 50.0 45.0 0.1 0.71 15.7 15.7 ^0.5 0.10 15.1 22.0 0.49 0.09
Vacuum drying 49.8 42.9 ^0.01 0.78 11.9 20.2 0.34 0.11 15.2 20.1 0.58 0.11
Microwaves 50.0 30.0 0.1 0.91 10.0 19.8 0.17 0.12 13.5 21.7 0.20 0.13
Freeze drying 50.6 60.7 0.21 0.55 12.4 13.8 0.26 0.15 15.1 18.9 0.30 0.12

ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59
56 Effect of drying method on colour Magdalini K. Krokida et al.

Figure 1 Lightness (L) variation Apple Banana

80 60
during various drying processes.

60

40

Lightness (L)

Lightness (L)
40

Conv. drying
20
Vacuum drying
20 Microwaves
Freeze drying
Osmotic dehydr.
Calculated

0 0
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
Time (min) Time (min)
Potato Carrot
80 80

70

60
Lightness (L)

Lightness (L)

60

40

50

40 20
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
Time (min) Time (min)

parameter decreased significantly during air, va-
cuum and microwave drying for banana, carrot and
potato.
Although the L parameter of the osmotically pre-
treated apple and banana samples was less than that
of fresh tissues, it showed a remarkable stability over
the whole duration of drying (Fig. 1). The lightness
of freeze-dried materials was slightly increased dur-
ing drying.
The browning of fruits and vegetables during dry-
ing is owing to both enzymatic and non-enzymatic
browning reactions. The infusion of sugars in fruits
causes a relative stability of the L, a, b colour para-
meters, especially in comparison to air-dried sam-
ples, which experienced an extensive browning.
Freeze drying removes water by sublimation of ice
at low temperatures and prevents enzymatic brown-
ing reactions, resulting in relative stability of the L, a,
b colour parameters.
The results of redness (a) kinetics are shown in

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59 ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd
 Effect of drying method on colour Magdalini K. Krokida et al. 57

Apple Banana
Figure 2 Redness (a) variation
7 8
during various drying processes.

6 7

5 6

4 5

Redness (a)
3 4

Redness (a)
2 3
Conv. drying
2 Vacuum drying
1
Microwaves
Freeze drying
0 1 Osmotic deh.
Calculted
–1 0

–2 –1
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
Time (min)
Potato Carrot
7 20

6
18
5

4 16
Redness (a)

Redness (a)

3
14
2

1 12

0
10
–1

–2 8
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
Time (min) Time (min)

Fig. 2.The a value of dried apple, banana and potato
increased significantly during air drying. The in-
crease of a value denotes a more red chroma which
is indicative of the browning reaction. An exception
seems to be carrot, for which redness is relatively
constant in conventional and freeze drying. Apart
from carrot, microwave and vacuum drying caused
a smaller increment of redness than air drying,
which means that the final products were less brown.
Freeze-dried materials showed the smallest incre-
ment of redness. Thus, freeze drying prevents
browning during drying. On the other hand, the os-
motically-treated samples keep their a value rela-
tively constant. The initial a values were larger for
the osmotically pretreated samples (Fig. 2). The re-
lative increase in redness, however, of the a value for

ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59
58 Effect of drying method on colour Magdalini K. Krokida et al.

Figure 3 Yellowness (b) variation Apple Banana

20 18
during various drying processes.

15

Yellowness (b)

Yellowness (b)
12

10 Conv. drying
Vacuum drying
Microwaves
Freeze drying
Osmotic deh.
Calculated
5 6
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
Time (min) Time (min)
Potato Carrot
18 24

16

14

12 20
Yellowness (b)

Yellowness (b)
10

6 16

0 12
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
Time (min) Time (min)

all osmotically pretreated samples was small com-
pared to the significant increases for untreated sam-
ples.
The chroma parameter b behaved similar to the
redness parameter during the drying processes. The
b values increased most for the air-dried samples,
followed by a smaller increment for the vacuum-
dried ones. Microwave drying caused a smaller in-
crement of yellowness than air drying for apple and
carrot, while it had the opposite effect on banana
and potato samples. Osmotically and freeze-dried
samples showed the smallest increments of yellow-
ness.
The different behaviours of dried samples during
the various drying methods show that the drying
method significantly affects the browning reactions
that occur during drying. The osmotically-treated
and freeze-dried samples kept their colour intact
upon subsequent air drying. Thus, a good method
for colour preservation is the immersion of fruits in
sugar solution. The colour preservation may be seen
by the relative constant lightness parameter L and

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59 ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd

chroma parameters (a, b). Thus, osmotic and freeze
drying inhibits colour deterioration during drying,
resulting in products with superior colour compared
to those dried by other methods.
Conclusions
The colour parameters L, a and b were found to be
significantly affected by drying method. The con-
ventional-, microwave- and vacuum-dried materi-
als suffered significant browning. On the other
hand, freeze-dried and osmotically-treated samples
kept their colour intact. More specifically, their col-
our preservation may be measured by the relatively
constant lightness parameter L (almost constant or
an insignificant decrease) and chroma parameters
(a, b), which showed only a small increase. Osmotic
pretreatment and freeze drying are processes that
produce products with improved colour character-
istics.
References
Bolin, H.R. & Steele, R.J. (1987). Nonenzymatic browning in
dried apples during storage. Journal of Food Science, 52,
1654^1657.
Eagerman, B.A. (1978). Orange juice color measurement using
general purpose tristimulus colorimeters. Journal of Food
Science, 43, 428^431.
Islam, M.N. & Flink, J.M. (1982). Dehydration of potato II.
Osmotic concentration and its effects on air drying
behaviour. Journal of Food Technology, 17, 387^403.
Karathanos, V.T., Anglea, S.A. & Karel, M. (1996). Structure
ß 2001Blackwell Science Ltd International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2001, 36, 53^59
Effect of drying method on colour Magdalini K. Krokida et al. 59
collapse of plant materials during freeze drying. Journal of
Thermal Analysis, 46, 1541^1551.
Krokida, M.K., Tsami, E. & Maroulis, Z.B. (1998). Kinetics on
color changes during drying of some fruits and vegetables.
DryingTechnology, 16, 667^685.
Le Loch-Bonazzi, C., Wolff, E. & Gibert, H. (1992). Quality of
dehydrated cultivated mushrooms (Agaricus bisporous): a
comparison between different drying and freeze drying
processes. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft-Technologie, 25, 334^
339.
Lee, C.Y., Shallenberger, R.S. & Vittum, M.T. (1970). Free
sugars in fruits and vegetables. New York's Food and Life
Science Bulletin. Geneva, NY, 1, 1^12.
Maroulis, Z.B., Tsami, E., Marinos-Kouris, D. et al. (1988).
Application of the GAB model to the sorption isotherms of
dried fruits. Journal of Food Science, 7, 63^78.
Pointing, J.D. (1973). Osmotic dehydration of fruits-Recent
modifications and applications. Process Biochemistry, 8,18^
20.
Rocha, T., Lebert, A. & Marty-Audouin, C. (1993). Effect of
pretreatments and drying conditions on drying rate and
colour retention of basil. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft-Tech-
nologie, 26, 456^463.
Sapers, G.M. & Ziolkowski, M.A. (1987). Comparison of
erythorbic and ascorbic acids as inhibitors of enzymatic
browning in apple. Journal of Food Science, 52, 1732^1733,
1747.
Saravacos, G.D. (1993). Technological Developments in Fruit
and Vegetable Dehydration. In: Food Flavor, Ingredients
and Composition (edited byG. Charalambous). Pp. 389^
404. Place: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Steet, J.A. & Tong, C.H. (1996). Degradation kinetics of green
color and chlorophylls in peas by colorimetry and HPLC.
Journal of Food Science, 61, 924^927, 931.
Yang, C.S.T. & Atallah, W.A. (1985). Effect of four drying
methods on the quality of intermediate moisture lowbush
blueberries. Journal of Food Science, 50, 1233^1237.