www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng
a
diSTAM – Sezione Tecnologie Alimentari, Universit a di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy
b
DI.VA.P.R.A. – Settore Microbiologia e Industrie Agrarie, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, Torino, Italy
c
I.V.T.P.A. – Istituto Sperimentale per la Valorizzazione Tecnologica dei Prodotti Agricoli, Via Venezian 26, 20133 Milano, Italy
Received 19 December 2000; accepted 23 April 2001
Abstract
This work is focused on some properties of various dried tomato products (tomato pulp, tomato halves and insoluble solids-rich
tomato), useful to optimize drying processes. Adsorption and desorption isotherms at 20°C of these products were measured and
modelled by the Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer (GAB) equation. Insoluble solids-rich tomato was the least hygroscopic of all
tomato products. Tomato products were air-dried in a pilot plant and the drying kinetics was modelled. The mass transfer equation
for drying of thin slabs, modified to include shrinkage of samples during drying, was successfully applied to experimental data.
Apparent water diffusivity values ranged from 2:3 109 to 9:1 109 m2 /s as a function of the structure of tomato products. The
lycopene and ascorbic content and the antioxidant activity of hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts were measured both on fresh and
dried tomato products. Interesting properties of insoluble solids-rich tomato were evidenced: it had the highest lycopene content (ca.
12,000 mg/kg dm) and lipophilic antioxidant activity (ca. 400I50 ; lg dm) of all tomato products. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All
rights reserved.
Table 2
Estimated parameters of the GAB model
Tomato products nsm (g/g dm) C k Correlation coefficient
Freeze-dried tomato pulp (adsorption at 20°C) 0.117 5.86 1.013 0.999
Air-dried tomato pulp (desorption at 20°C) 0.087 9.75 0.995 0.999
Air-dried tomato halves (desorption at 25°C) 0.076 5.73 1.021 0.998
Freeze-dried insoluble solids-rich tomato (adsorption 0.045 26.83 0.942 0.999
at 20°C)
analysis: good description of the isotherms when air temperature and product thickness as variables. The
5:67 6 C 6 1 and 0:24 < k 6 1. drying kinetics reported by Zanoni et al. (1999) was also
Fig. 1 shows a similar desorption behaviour between included. Drying of all tomato samples moved quickly
air-dried tomato pulp and tomato halves at desorption. to a falling rate period, which determined the kinetics
Tomato pulp resulted to be more hygroscopic during of the operation.
adsorption than during desorption. Although the op- In order to explain the role of operating conditions
posite (i.e., moisture sorption hysteresis) is usually on tomato products drying, the drying kinetics was
observed, this phenomenon may be explained by the modelled. The experimental conditions applied allowed
mildest conditions employed to dry samples for ad- us to consider all tomato products tested as thin slabs
sorption isotherm evaluation. Freeze-drying prevented subjected to drying on both sides for a long time in
thermal degradation and changes in the physical struc- the absence of any significant external resistance. The
ture of the material. Hence, storage conditions of air- following equation was then applied to model mass
dried tomatoes, optimized according to adsorption data transfer during the falling rate period of drying (Perry &
obtained from freeze-dried samples, may be inconsis- Green, 1984):
tent; dried samples would thus seem to be more stable
than they actually are as they would be less sensitive ns nseq 8 D2
¼ exp p 2t ; ð2Þ
to moisture variations. ns0 nseq p2 L
Insoluble solids-rich tomato was the least hygro-
scopic of all tomato products. This may depend on re- where ns is the mean moisture on dry basis at time t; nseq
moval of soluble solids such as fructose and glucose by and ns0 are the equilibrium and initial moisture contents
centrifugation. As a result, this tomato product requires on dry basis, respectively; L is the thickness of slab and
higher water removal during drying to reduce water D is the effective diffusivity of water.
activity. It is also more sensitive to moisture variations From Eq. (2) the effective diffusivity can be deter-
during storage. mined by the slope of the straight line obtained by
plotting the experimental data from lnfð ns nseq Þ=
3.2. Drying properties ðns0 nseq Þg as a function of t=L2 . Table 3 shows the
relevant values for variables in Eq. (2) for data pro-
Fig. 2 shows the variation in drying rate as a function cessing. The values for drying air were determined by a
of the moisture content, with type of tomato products, psychrometric chart, and the values for nseq were deter-
mined by the above GAB equations.
All the samples, except for the insoluble solids-rich
tomato samples, showed a non-linear relationship on a
semi-log plot (Fig. 3). Drying moved to a falling rate
period, characterized by a two-stage phenomenon, where
the effective water diffusivity of the second stage was
bigger than that of the first one. This phenomenon does
not usually occur; commonly, diffusivity decreases as
drying proceeds (Brennan, 1994).
Hawlader, Uddin, Ho, and Teng (1991) found a
similar behaviour, when studying the drying kinetics of
sliced tomatoes at different air temperatures and flow
rates. This was ascribed to the shrinkage of samples
during drying and, hence, to a reduction of thickness,
Fig. 2. Drying rate versus moisture content for: N, tomato pulp dried
resulting in faster water removal. Hawlader et al. (1991)
in a slab 20 mm in thickness at 70°C; r, tomato pulp dried in a slab 15
mm in thickness at 70°C; j, insoluble solids-rich tomato dried in a slab proposed that L in Eq. (2) should be replaced with a
10 mm in thickness at 60°C; , tomato halves 16 mm in thickness dried modified thickness L0 , related to the moisture content by
at 80°C; , tomato halves 16 mm in thickness dried at 110°C. the following equation:
G. Giovanelli et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 52 (2002) 135–141 139
Fig. 3. Relationship between lnfðns nseq Þ=ðns0 nseq Þg and t=L2 for: Fig. 4. Comparison between experimental data (symbols) and pre-
N, tomato pulp in a 20 mm slab; r, tomato pulp in a 15 mm slab; j, dicted data (lines) on drying kinetics for: N, tomato pulp in a 20 mm
insoluble solids-rich tomato; , tomato halves dried at 80°C; , tomato slab;, tomato pulp in a 15 mm slab; r, insoluble solids-rich tomato; ,
halves dried at 110°C. tomato halves dried at 80°C; , tomato halves dried at 110°C.
Table 3
Characteristics of tomato products and air drying for experimental kinetic data processing
Sample L (mm) ns0 Fresh air Fresh air relative Drying air temper- Drying air relative nseq
(g/g dm) temperature (°C) humidity (%) ature (°C) humidity (%) (g/g dm)
Tomato pulp 15 10.36 16 15 70 0.8 0.006
Tomato pulp 20 12.51 13 20 70 1 0.008
Tomato halves 16 16.37 13 80 80 2.8 0.011
Tomato halves 16 17.52 13 80 110 0.9 0.004
Insoluble solids- 10 8.09 20 55 60 6.5 0.031
rich tomato
Table 4
Kinetic characteristics of tomato products
Sample n index Effective water diffusivity, D Correlation coefficient, r
(m2 /s)
Tomato pulp dried in a slab 15 mm in thickness at 70°C 0.08 9:14 109 0.99
Tomato pulp dried in a slab 20 mm in thickness at 70°C 0.14 7:77 109 0.99
Insoluble solids-rich tomato dried in a slab 10 mm in 0 5:48 109 0.99
thickness at 60°C
Tomato halves 16 mm in thickness dried at 110°C 0.14 4:01 109 0.99
Tomato halves 16 mm in thickness dried at 80°C 0.14 2:26 109 0.99
3950 290
1200 50
thickness reduction (see tomato pulps) and temperature
increase (see tomato halves) on the increase of water
diffusivity.
–
Ascorbic acid con-
3.3. Antioxidant properties
400 60
ferent types of fresh and dried tomato products. Ex-
perimental data for tomato halves air-dried at 80°C by
nd
–
Lavelli, Hippeli, Peri, and Elstner (1999) were included.
1900 70
1140 70
antioxidant effectiveness in a single model system. Data
on fresh products showed peculiar properties of the in-
–
soluble solids-rich tomato samples, which had a much
higher lycopene content than tomato halves (ca. 14
Lycopene content
times higher) and tomato pulp (ca. six times higher).
This resulted in a higher antioxidant activity of the lip-
11167 150
(mg/kg dm)
2170 160
ophilic extract, which was ca. five times higher than that
830 50
Dried
of tomato halves and ca. two times higher than that of
tomato pulp. Since data confirmed that lycopene and
lipophilic antioxidant activity had a high stability during
4620 350
teresting product as a food ingredient, useful for its
625 20
antioxidant and colouring properties.
A different behaviour was observed for the ascorbic
–
acid content and the antioxidant activity of the hydro-
content (mg/kg
3300 100
(I50 , lg dm)
1900 100
12202 24
Lycopene
2186 13
content
rich tomato