Moisture dependent physical properties of dried pomegranate seeds (Anardana)

Development of High Dietary Fibre-Enriched Cupcake Using Pomegranate Peel Powder

The effect of substituted wheat flour with pomegranate peel powder (PPP) at different ratios 5, 10, 15, and 20% on chemical composition, physical properties, color appearance, staling, and the sensory evaluation of the high-fibre cupcake was evaluated. The obtained results revealed that a slight increase in ash of cake samples with all levels of PPP was found. The highest value of ash was 1.92% given by cupcakes with 20% PPP. It was observed that a gradual significant ( $p\le 0.05$ ) increase in dietary fibre of prepared cupcakes with PPP compared to control cake. The dietary fibre values ranged from 2.73% for the control cake to 17.00% with 20% of PPP; it may be due to the high content of ash and dietary fibre in PPP. Also, using PPP in cupcake manufacturing had a lowered effect on their volume and specific volume, where control cupcake recorded 48.00 cm3 and 1.40 cm3/g for volume and specific volume, respectively. In addition, a gradual significant ( $p\le 0.05$ ) decrease in $L$ value (lightness) with incorporated different levels of PPP was found. The control cupcake had the highest lightness value (65.97) with a significant ( $p\le 0.05$ ) increase compared to all other cupcake samples that ranged between 37.67 and 30.18 by 5% and 20% of PPP, respectively. The results indicated that the highest value of taste was 18.75, which was given by cupcake with 5% PPP. While increasing the percentage of PPP in cupcake, the taste is less acceptable by panelists, and perhaps, this decreases in taste due to the high ratio of fibre in PPP. The highest staling was given by cupcake replaced with PPP at 20% after the ninth day of storage. Finally, it can be concluded that PPP can be used in cupcake production to raise its dietary fibre and mineral content up to a substitution rate of 10% PPP while retaining acceptable organoleptic properties.

Study on the Effects of Physical Properties of Tenera Palm Kernel during Drying and Its Moisture Sorption Isotherms

A study on the effect of the physical properties and moisture sorption isotherm of palm kernels constitutes the critical criteria in evaluating the drying performance. The drying was evaluated as a function of moisture content (MC) in the range of 0.31–0.02 kg/kg (d.b.). Whereas, the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of palm kernels (whole kernel and ground kernel) was determined experimentally using the standard gravimetric method at different temperatures (50 °C to 80 °C), over a range of relative humidity (RH) from 10% to 81%. Palm kernel length, width, and thickness decrease from 16.08 ± 2.09 mm to 14.17 ± 2.30 mm, 12.06 ± 1.40 mm to 11.24 ± 1.08 mm, and 10.01 ± 1.27 mm to 9.18 ± 1.04 mm, respectively, when MC decreased. Bulk density, surface area, and specific surface area decreased as the MC decreased, while porosity and true density were increased. EMC of palm kernels (whole kernel and ground kernel) decreased with an increase in temperature at constant RH. Modified Oswin and modified Halsey models were found to be the best for predicting desorption moisture isotherms for whole and ground palm kernel, respectively. Therefore, the study of the effect of drying on physical aspects as well as moisture sorption isotherms is important to further analyze the drying performance of Tenera palm kernel (e.g., equipment design and energy requirement).

Mathematical Modelling and Optimisation of Low-Temperature Drying on Quality Aspects of Rough Rice

Rice when harvested normally has a high moisture content of 20–25% which requires immediate drying, reducing its mass loss and preventing it to spoil. This situation is more crucial with the areas under humid tropical conditions, where moisture and temperature mainly play an important role in deteriorating the quality of rough rice. Keeping the importance of quality attributes of rough rice, the study was carried out to assess the effects of low-temperature drying and suggest an optimum condition. Response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design was employed to study the effects of variables, i.e., temperature (X1), time (X2), and air velocity (X3) on responses, i.e., head rice yield (HRY), hardness, lightness, and cooking time. The experimental data were fitted to the quadratic model, studying the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The results revealed that the HRY, hardness, lightness, and cooking time increased with increasing variables, whereas for HRY, it particularly increased and then decreased. It was observed that temperature had more influence on the quality of rough rice followed by time and velocity. Results for analysis of variance revealed that the quality aspects of rough rice were significantly (p<0.05) affected by temperature and time, whereas for velocity, it only significantly affected hardness. The optimal drying conditions predicted by RSM for variables were 25°C, 600 min, and 1 m·s−1, and the optimal predicted HRY, hardness, lightness, and cooking time were 73.93%, 38.28 N, 71.40, and 27.58 min respectively. Acceptable values of R2, Adj R2, and nonsignificance of lack of fit demonstrated that the model applied was adequate and can be used for optimization. The study concluded that the RSM with a central composite design was successfully used to study the dependence of quality aspects of rough rice at low temperature and can be utilized by the rice processing industries.

DOLE BHUSHAN, K. SATPATHY SANGRAM, NAIK S. Physical Attributes and Modelling of Trans- Himalayan Seabuckthorn Berries

Seabuckthorn is a highly perishable fruit found in trans-Himalayan region and North-Eastern part of India. It has enormous nutritional and medicinal properties. Physical attributes of fruits play an important role in the design of machines to meet various harvest and post harvest operations. In the present study properties like dimensions, true density, bulk density, sphericity, porosity and angle of repose were measured and correlated with the mass of the fruit. In addition linear, polynomial, quadratic, logarithmic and exponential models were used for mass and surface area. The length, diameter, thousand berry weight, geometric mean diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, surface area, aspect ratio, angle of repose, sphericity, porosity, true density, bulk density, moisture content were found in the range of 6.5-7.5, 4.74-6.28, 362.67-910.14, 5.49-6.99, 6.17-6.24, 76.87-154.76, 72.81-83.73, 3.59-6.82, 65.84-90.47, 17.05-60.07, 647.19-1399.24, 453.81-725.88, 84.53-87.34 respectively. Polynomial model was suited to be best for mass with length and diameter. Polynomial model between surface area and geometric mean diameter gave highest R2 of 0.981.

Influence of osmotic dehydration pre-treatment and combined drying method on physico-chemical and sensory properties of pomegranate arils, cultivar Mollar de Elche

"Mollar de Elche" is the most popular Spanish pomegranate cultivar (intense sweetness and easy-to-chew arils); however, arils have pale pink colour and flat sensory profile. "Mollar the Elche" arils first underwent an osmotic dehydration pre-treatment (OD) with concentrated juices: (i) chokeberry, (ii) apple, and/or (iii) pomegranate cultivar "Wonderful", to improve their antioxidant capacity, colour, and sensory profile complexity, and later the arils were dried by a combined method (convective pre-drying+vacuum microwave finish drying). The use of OD provided dried arils with characteristic sweetness, and improved colour and aromatic complexity. The recommended OD methods were those using (i) pomegranate, and (ii) pomegranate with chokeberry juices; they improved the total anthocyanin content (mean of 368mgkg^-1), red colour (a^∗ coordinate 15.6), and antioxidant capacity (e.g. ABTS mean of 5.7mmolTrolox100g^-1). However, further research is still needed because freeze-dried arils had the highest anthocyanin content.

Functional Properties of Re-fabricated Rice as Affected by Die During Extrusion Process

In order to obtain re-fabricated rice with properties similar to natural rice, a special cutter and six dies were designed and evaluated. All the dimensional and physical properties of re-fabricated rice were significantly affected by die type. The average values of all the properties studied increased with the increase in moisture content (from 10 to 14%), except length/breadth ratio and porosity which decreased with the increase in moisture content. Based on the dimensional and physical properties, the re-fabricated rice obtained through die IV (8 × 1.5 mm) was in close resemblance to natural rice (PR-116). In general, uncooked and cooked re-fabricated rice grains showed significantly harder and firm texture in comparison to natural rice. Furthermore, significant differences were observed with respect to colour, whiteness and translucence between re-fabricated rice samples and natural rice. Sensory evaluation data revealed significant decrease in oral tenderness and adhesiveness in re-fabricated rice against natural rice. The study demonstrated that appropriate design of extrusion die is determinant factor for developing re-fabricated rice with properties similar to natural rice.

Mass modeling of fig (Ficus carica L.) fruit with some physical characteristics

Horticultural crops with the similar weight and uniform shape are in high demand in terms of marketing value, which are used as food. For proper design of grading systems, important relationships among the mass and other properties of fruits such as length, width, thickness, volumes, and projected areas must be known. The aim of this research was to measure and present some physical properties of fig fruits. In addition, Linear, Quadratic, S-curve, and Power models are used for mass predication of fig fruits based on measured physical properties. The results showed that all measured physical properties were statistically significant at the 1% probability level. For mass predication of fig fruits, the best and the worst models were obtained based on criteria projected area and thickness of the fruits with determination coefficients (R²) of 0.984 and 0.664, respectively. At last, from economical standpoint, mass modeling of fig fruits based on first projected area is recommended.

Some physical and mechanical properties of roasted Zerun wheat

Some physical and mechanical properties of roasted Zerun wheat were investigated in the moisture range from 8.80 % to 23.40 % wet basis. Mechanical properties were evaluated by examining the effect of moisture content upon the grain rupture force, energy and Weibull parameters. Length, width, thickness, porosity and angle of repose increased nonlinearly from 6.09 to 6.36 mm; 4.17 to 4.18 mm; 2.66 to 2.78 mm; 37.71 % to 39.09 % and 33.02° to 37.90°, respectively when moisture content increased. The Weibull distribution fits the data for rupture force and energy. The Weibull modulus and scale parameter for rupture force varied between 3.88 and 6.20; 26.61 and 44.24N, respectively. The Weibull modulus for energy increased from 2.15 to 3.24 with increased in moisture content. Measured mechanical properties of grains showed that the brittleness and fragile structure of the roasted grain gradually lost its characteristic crispiness and become soft and ductile above 13.78 % moisture content.

Some physical properties of sun-dried Berberis fruit (Berberis crataegina)

The present study was conducted to evaluate some physical properties of sun dried Berberis fruit as a function of moisture content, varying from 9.59% to 27.90% (w.b.). Dried fruit length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter and sphericity, increased nonlinearly from 7.19 to 7.53 mm; 3.42 to 4.03 mm; 2.78 to 3.02 mm; 4.05 to 4.51 mm and 0.56 to 0.62, respectively with increased moisture content. When we tested 1000-dried fruits, their mass increased linearly from 3.10 to 4.89 g, the true and bulk density increased nonlinearly from 769 to 845 kg m(-3) and 389 to 395 kg m(-3), respectively; with increased moisture content. Also, porosity values of dried fruits increased nonlinearly from 49.40% to 53.30%. The lowest static coefficient of friction was found on the steel surface. The angle of repose increased nonlinearly from 20.14° to 23.20° with the increasing in the moisture content.

Influence of moisture content on physical properties of minor millets

Physical properties including 1000 kernel weight, bulk density, true density, porosity, angle of repose, coefficient of static friction, coefficient of internal friction and grain hardness were determined for foxtail millet, little millet, kodo millet, common millet, barnyard millet and finger millet in the moisture content range of 11.1 to 25% db. Thousand kernel weight increased from 2.3 to 6.1 g and angle of repose increased from 25.0 to 38.2°. Bulk density decreased from 868.1 to 477.1 kg/m(3) and true density from 1988.7 to 884.4 kg/m(3) for all minor millets when observed in the moisture range of 11.1 to 25%. Porosity decreased from 63.7 to 32.5%. Coefficient of static friction of minor millets against mild steel surface increased from 0.253 to 0.728 and coefficient of internal friction was in the range of 1.217 and 1.964 in the moisture range studied. Grain hardness decreased from 30.7 to 12.4 for all minor millets when moisture content was increased from 11.1 to 25% db.