Department of Post Harvest Process and Food Engineering, College of Technology, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263 145, India.
Hot-air drying characteristics of osmosed button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) slices were studied. During air drying at 40°C temperature and 1.6 sample to solution ratio, the decrease in moisture content and moisture ratio decreased with time of drying. The change in DM/Mo and MR was higher during initial drying time. Osmosed mushroom took eight to twelve hours drying time to reach its EMC depending on drying air temperature. One variable and two variable power law models, exponential and Page's models very well fitted the experimental data of air drying. However, Page's model and exponential model gave better results as compared to power law models. Also the predicted values of Page's model were very much close to observed values. Temperature dependence of drying rate constant followed the Arrehenious type of relationship.
