Effects of Air-Impingement Jet Drying on Drying Kinetics, Nutrient Retention and Rehydration Characteristics of Onion (Allium cepa) Slices

This study is designed to investigate drying kinetics, nutrient retention and rehydration ratio of onion slices under air-impingement jet drying (AIJD) with different drying temperatures (40, 50 and 60 degrees C), air velocities (11, 12 and 13 m/s), and the distance between jet nozzles and material box (0, 40 and 80 mm). Additionally, the influence of AIJD and hot air drying (HAD) on drying efficiency and product quality of onion slices was comparatively investigated. It was found that the moisture effective diffusivity of onion slices under AIJD ranged from 3.51 +/- 10(-10) to 5.51 +/- 10(-10) m(2)/s, and the activation energy (E-a) of onion determined from Arrhenius equation was 14.73 kJ/mol, and ascorbic acid content (AAC), total phenolic content (TPC) and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging activity (DSA) significantly decreased in the dried onions compared to that in fresh onion. In addition, the results suggest that the Modified Page model provides the best fit for AIJD curves. Furthermore, AIJD product is better than HAD both in decreasing drying time and enhancing drying rate, AAC, TPC, DSA and rehydration ratio. Accordingly, the AIJD method has advantages in drying time and quality of products, indicating that this technology can be widely applied to food drying process.