Determination of the water apparent diffusivity coefficients during osmotic dehydration of carrot in sugar beet molasses

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine influence of different concentration of sugar beet molasses and the duration of the process of osmotic dehydration of carrot on apparent diffusion coefficients of water (Dw). Carrot samples were cut into cubes and immersed in different concentrations of sugar beet molasses (40.0%, 60.0% and 80.0% dry matter) during maximim process time of 5 hours. After each sampling time (60, 180 and 300 min) the carrot samples were weighed and analyzed for dry matter content. Solution concentration and immersion time had a significant influence on the Dw(p<0.05) at 95% confidence limit. Proposed equation that describes dependence of the concentration of osmotic solution and the time of osmotic dehydration on the apparent diffusion coefficient, can be successfully used for modeling process of osmotic dehydration of carrots in molasses solutions.