Effect of pretreatment on color of dehydrated products

The effect of pretreatment on color of convective dried products (namely apple, banana, potato and carrot) was investigated. Five different types of pretreatment were taken into consideration; microwave, osmotic, sulfite, water blanching and steam blanching. Color characteristics were identified by measuring the color parameters (namely, Lightness (L), Redness (a) and Yellowness (b)) using a Hunter Lab chromatometer. The type of pretreatment was found to significantly affect the three color parameters. In addition, Redness (a) and Yellowness (b) were found to follow a first order kinetic model. Untreated dried materials showed an extensive browning, indicated by a significant drop of the L parameter and a corresponding increase of a, b parameters. Osmotically and microwave pretreated samples supressed browning compared to the untreated samples. In this case, lightness decreased slightly, while a, b increased slightly. Sulfite pretreatment prevented significantly color deterioration, while water and steam blanching also prevented enzymatic browning during convective drying.