Optimization of Process Parameters for Osmotic Dehydration as a Pretreatment for Making Papaya Candy

Papaya slices were osmosed using jaggery instead of sucrose to lessen the deteriorating health effect of refined sugar. The Box-Behnken design was used to optimize time (1-4 hr), temperature (35-45°C) and jaggery concentration (45 to 55° Brix) to achieve maximum water loss (WL) and optimum solute gain (SG) in papaya slices. The optimized conditions for osmotic dehydration of papaya slices were immersion time (4.0 hr), temperature (44°C) and jaggery concentration (55° Brix) for a water loss of 34.35 (g/100g) and solute gain of 9.61 (g/100g). Further, the sample prepared using optimized conditions was dried by convective drying for making papaya candy. Proximate and mineral analysis of the samples suggested an improvement in the nutritional quality of jaggery-based papaya candy by significantly increasing the ash and mineral content of jaggery-based candy compared to sucrose-based candy. In addition, sensory attributes suggested higher acceptability of jaggery-based papaya candy, which was comparable with the control.