Evaluation of Solar Drying Characteristics of Sapota Slices and its Quality Evaluation

In this paper the peeled ripe sapota slices 5(mm) of kalipatti verity was exposed for solar drying. And this experiment drying took place 59 h for drying of sapota slices. It took around 6 days to complete the drying process. The quality of dried product i.e. TSS, acidity, pH, reducing sugar, total sugar, carbohydrate, protein, fat, ash and colour (L, a and b) was evaluated. Various drying models i.e. Newton, Page, Modified Page, Exponentials, Thompson, Modified Page equation was fitted to the experiment data. Page model was well fitted in this experiment. The parameter of Page model are k = 0.038 and n = 0.704, R² = 0.973, MSE = 0.0011 and (Chi-square) value of sapota slices was 0.14. The average product temperature was 49 ± 1.98°C. The average ambient temperature was 34.27 ± 1.78°C. The ambient air temperature varied from 38.12 to 55.08 °C. The product temperature varied from 36.04 to 47.14°C. Quality parameter of solar drying is TSS 60 (°B); acidity 0.21(%); pH 6.03; reducing sugar 24.62(%); total sugar 37.51(%); carbohydrate 25.62(%); Protein 1.12(%); fat 1.33(%); ash 1.3(%) and colour L value 66.54; a value 8.1; b value 27.12 respectively.