Parameters that influence the dehydration of fruits and vegetables

Abstract

The dehydration process is one of the oldest methods that allows the conservation of fruits or vegetables, it is characterized by the total or partial elimination of water through evaporation, it prevents the microorganism’s proliferation, inhibits the enzymatic action, increases useful lifetime allowing a better conservation of the fruit or vegetable. The objective of the present review is to identify the phenomena that occur in the dehydration process and the factors that can affect this process. Dehydration provides an added value to agro industrial products that are traditionally sold only in afresh state; favors transportation and distribution operations due to the reduction in weight and volume of fruits and vegetables. Through the bibliographic review, it was identified that in the dehydration process two phenomena occur: the transmission of heat from the external gaseous medium to the internal medium of the food and the transfer of the internal humidity of the food to the external medium, in addition; the factors that can affect the dehydration are: pressure, temperature, humidity and air speed, so they must be controlled from the beginning of the dehydration process