Ultrasound freeze-thawing style pretreatment to improve the efficiency of the vacuum freeze-drying of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) and the quality characteristics of the dried product |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, People’s Republic of China;2. School of Biological and Food Engineering, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou 239000, People’s Republic of China;3. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia |
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Abstract: | Vacuum freeze-drying is a new and high technology on agricultural product dehydrating dry, but it faces the high cost problem caused by high energy consumption. This study investigated the effect of ultrasound (US), freeze-thawing (including the freeze-air thawing (AT), freeze-water thawing (WT), freeze-ultrasound thawing (UST), and freeze-air ultrasound thawing (AT + US)) pretreatments on the vacuum freeze-drying efficiency and the quality of dried okra. The results indicated that the application of ultrasound and different freeze-thawing pretreatments reduced the drying time by 25.0%–62.50% and the total energy consumption was 24.28%–62.35% less. The AT pretreatment reduced the time by of okra slices by 62.50% and the total energy consumption was 62.35% less. The significant decrease in drying time was due to a change in the microstructure caused by pretreatment. Besides, the okra pretreated with the US retained most of the quality characteristics (flavor, color, hardness, and frangibility) among all methods, while, AT + US had the most changeable characteristics in quality, which is deprecated in our study. The okra pretreated with the US and AT, separately, had the best dry matter content loss (9.008%, 5.602%), lower chlorophyll degradation (5.05%, 5.44% less), and higher contents of total phenolics, total flavonoids, and pectin, with strong antioxidant capacity, compared to other methods. The pretreatments did not have a large effect on the functional groups and the structure of pectin, but slightly affected the viscosity. It can be concluded that AT and US pretreatment methods are better than others. |
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Keywords: | Okra Ultrasound Freeze-thawing Vacuum-freeze drying efficiency Quality characteristics |
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