1.

INTRODUCTION

Drying is referred to a process in which water is taken out or removed from a material or food such as fruit by means of evaporation of water under high temperature condition. This purpose of drying is for food preservation. Drying is one of many techniques used for food preservation. The purpose of food preservation technique applied onto food is to extend the shelf life of the food which generally prevents the formation of microorganisms such as fungi or bacteria that led to food spoilage and disease to human. Before drying process, water is one of the compositions of fruit content. Then as the water removed due to the drying process, the water content of the fruit is decreased which could be nearly to zero or exactly zero percent. The rate in water loss is increased over the time, a higher temperature of surrounding helps in increased of better removal of water from the fruit. The effect of the drying process on fruit can be observed from the naked eyes which it shows the smaller size of the fruit as compared to the fresh fruit. The dried fruit also may look crumpled and wrinkled. The fruit is not considered as juicy due to the water is removed. In terms of taste, the fruit may have approximately the same sweetness, this is because the water is the most evaporated materials as compared to sugar. As the water is removed, there is lack of preferable condition for most of microorganism to grow, therefore the fruit is potentially can be store for longer period of time. 1.1 Aim

To study drying technique as one of preservation method To determine the moisture content and drying rates of dried apple To determine the difference in moisture content and drying rates at different concentration 1.2 Process Background

Drying process as food preservation technique has dated long ago. Foods that are not preserve are easily spoiled. The spoilage of food can be contributed by microorganisms activity, endogenous enzyme activity, eviromental effect and chemical reaction. Therefore, preservation is needed to

extend the shelf-life of the food. Besides that, there are certain foods that are seasonal and certain that are not available at certain areas. Thus, by preserving the food, it can be available throughout the year around the world. Since drying reduce the size of food, it makes transportation and storage easier. Most of foods have a certain degree of moisture in them. Higher moisture content means that higher water activity inside the food. High water activity can fasten the spoilage of foods. This is because, water became the medium for microorganisms and enzyme activity and growth. Therefore, moisture needs to be remove in order to preserve the food and on the same time reduces the water activity. In food processing, it is important to determine the optimum condition for anyunit operations. When drying the food, it is important to know the drying rates and thee moisture content of the food in order to know the best condition or parameters to be set. When the best condition is set, it can lead to high production at lower cost. This is desired in any food industries. LITERATURE REVIEW METHODOLOGY 4.0 DISCUSSION

From the results shown by figures 4.1 and 4,2, it is shown that the drying rate is higher at temperature 60oC compared to temperature 75oC. When conducting the experiment, it is found that each time the samples are took out from the oven, the Petri dish that contain the sample from oven at temperature 60oC is hotter that the one from oven at temperature 75oC. This may due to problem or inefficiency of oven from either temperature. Therefore, this might affect the drying rates of apples in this experiment.

Figure 4.1: Drying rate vs time at temperature 60oC

Figure 4.2: Drying rate vs time at temperature 75oC

Based on the graphs plotted results of the graphs obtained are not the same as the theoretical graph shown below.

Figure 4.3: Theoritical drying curve Since the drying time is short, constant rate is unable to achieve. In order for constant rate to be achieved, it may takes more that 24 hours to dry. It can be seen that drying rate increases at first and decreased after the first 15 minutes for both samples. This may due to certain error contributed by many factors. First, this may due to some technical problem, for example the inefficiency of the oven stated before this. Besides that, during the interval time of every 15 minutes the apples are in the ovens, the apples are taken out to be weighed. The exposure of apples to the room temperature might had cause the graph obtained to be not the same. The exposure causes the temperature changed for the apples, and each time it is place back in the oven, it needs more time to warm up so that in the inner part of the apples can have the energy for the moisture to evaporate. This may leads to the lower in drying rates after 15 minutes. The first 15 minutes the drying rate is high due to the rapid evaporation of the surface moisture. However, the moisture inside need more time to evaporate compared to the surface moisture. Drying of food need to be done at temperature that will remove moisture content but did not cook the food (Retrieve from 9 November 2012, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/DRYING/dryfood.html). Therefore, in this experiment, the drying temperature chosen is 60 oC and 75 oC. The aim of the experiment is to compared drying efficiency at different temperature. This comparison are measured comparing moisture content and drying rates between apple slices at 60 oC and 75 oC. The apple slices are dried by applying heat to it. After apples are placed in the oven at the respective temperatures, the moisture at the surface will dry first followed by the moisture inside the apple slices. The temperature is kept lower that the temperature that can cook the food is because higher

temperature may result hardening to the apple slices. This is because drying took place too fast where the surface moisture evaporate at a faster rate without allowing the inner part of apple to warm up. If this is the case, it will takes time for the inner part of the apple slices to warm up and therefore allowing the surface cells to harden. The hardening of the surface preventing moisture to escape. If this happen, drying cannot takes place anymore. (Retrieve from 9 November 2012, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/DRYING/dryfood.html) It is important to ensure that there is air circulation during drying process. Air in the system will takes on as much moisture as it can hold(Retrieve from 9 November 2012, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/DRYING/dryfood.html). When it can no longer takes on moisture, drying is no longer occuring. In addition, the humidity of the system need to be kept minimal. If the system has high humidity content, the drying process will be slower and more energy is needed in order for the moisture inside the apple slices to evaporate. For example,it is insignificant to dry food during cold weather. Thus, in order to have efficient drying process good air circulation and lower humidity is to be considered. Water activity is important for food stability rather than the content of water in the food itself (Bounazzi & Dumoulin). Microorganisms cannot grow below the critical point of 0.6 0.7 water activity (Bounazzi & Dumoulin). Therefore, drying is done to reduce the water activity in the food in order to extend the shelf life of the food. Below shows the water activity and stability of food.

Figure 4.4: Water activity and stability of food. (Bounazzi & Dumoulin) The colour change observed during drying is due to degradation of pigments through enzymatic or

non-enzymatic reaction induced by drying (Bounazzi & Dumoulin). Therefore, when drying especially at higher temperature, the colour of the food is often change and excessive heat may cause the colour to change to brownish and consequently it will turn blackish. 5.0 5.1 CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATION Conclusion

Drying technique able to remove moisture where it reduces water activity in the food. Consequent to the lower water activity, microorganisms activity cannot accur. Besides that, the high temperature denature enzymes making enzyme activity is no longer take place. Thus, drying usually used as preservation methods as it helps in lengthen the shelf-life of the food preserved. Based on the results obtained, it shows that drying at temperature 60oC remove more moisture compared to drying at 70oC. Besides that, the drying rates at temperature 60oC are higher that at temperature 70oC. The results obtained may contribute to few factors, for example the exposure of samples at room temperature during weighing, the technical problem faced cause by the oven and the rapid drying at temperature 70oC may had cause the results to be as it is. Recommendation REFERENCES Food Preservaton - Drying Food. (2010, March). Columbia, United States: University of Missouri Extension. Drying (Food). (2012, November 8). Retrieved October 14, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_%28food%29 Murano, P. S. (2003). The Unit Operation of Food Processing. In P. S. Murano, Understanding Food Science and Technology (p. 214). United State: Wadsworth, Cencarge Learning. Roberts, T. (2011, May 10). Drying Food - The Basics. Retrieved October 14, 2012, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKSgyjk_e3c (Retrieve from 9 November 2012,

http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/DRYING/dryfood.html) Bonazzi C., Dumoulin E., Quality Changes in Food Materials as Influenced by Drying Processes, http://www.wiley-vch.de/books/sample/3527315586_c01.pdf

APPENDICES Appendix 1: Results of experiment Table 1: Results obtained from experiment at temperature 60oC Time (minutes) 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 Weight (g) 14.750 13.672 12.727 11.872 11.041 10.177 9.343 % Moisture Content 7.31 6.91 6.72 7.00 7.83 8.19 Drying Rates (g/min) 0.072 0.063 0.057 0.055 0.058 0.056

Table 2: Results obtained from experiment at temperature 75oC Time (minutes) 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 Weight (g) 8.945 8.367 7.842 7.412 7.007 6.707 6.452 % Moisture Content 6.46 6.27 5,48 5.46 4.28 3.80 Drying Rates (g/min) 0.039 0.035 0.029 0.027 0.020 0.017

Appendix 2: Raw data and calculations