Effect of pretreatments on dehydration of oyster mushroom

Oyster mushroom is highly perishable due to high moisture content, high respiration and transpiration rate. The shelf life of the mushroom can be extended by the process of dehydration. The main aim of the present study was to see the effect of pretreatment on dehydration of oyster mushroom in terms of quality and sensorial acceptability. The experiment was conducted with 5 samples and with 5 treatments. Samples of mushroom were sundried by giving various pretreatments i.e., 0.05% Citric acid, 0.05% KMS, 0.05% Citric acid and 0.05% KMS and 0.1%Citric acid and 0.1% KMS. It took 5 d to get the desired final dried product of 6.66 per cent moisture content. From this study, it was found that T5 i.e. pretreatment with 0.1% Citric acid and 0.1% KMS gave the best result in terms of recovery percentage, low moisture content and sensorial score than other treatments. The drying characteristic of the products involving percentage of drying with days of drying were also studied.