Influence of ultrasound pretreatments on diffusion coefficients, texture and colour of osmodehydrated sweet potato (Ipomea batatas)

The moisture and solute diffusivities, texture and colour of sweet potato pretreated in distilled water with ultrasound (UD), osmotic dehydration without ultrasound (OD) and osmotic dehydration with ultrasound (UOD) were investigated to determine the effects of ultrasound on osmodehydrated sweet potato. The moisture and solute diffusivities of all the pretreatments ranged from 2.89 to 4.95x10(-10) and 1.17 to 1.67x10(-10)m(2)s(-1), respectively. The moisture diffusivity of samples treated in UOD was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of OD and UD by 30.82% and 41.62%, respectively. Compared to the fresh sample, the firmness of samples treated in OD and UOD was reduced by 83.53% and 92.47%, respectively. UD increased the brightness (L*) and reduced the redness (a*) of sweet potato, while UOD enhanced the yellowness (b*) and chroma (C*) of sweet potato. The sweet potato samples treated in UOD had the highest total colour difference (E).