MODELLING OF THIN LAYER DRYING KINETICS OF COCOA BEANS DURING ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL DRYING

Drying experiments were conducted using air-ventilated oven and sun dryer to simulate the artificial and natural drying processes of cocoa beans. The drying data were fitted with several published thin layer drying models. A new model was introduced which is a combination of the Page and two-term drying model. Selection of the best model was investigated by comparing the determination of coefficient (R2), reduced chi-square (2) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the experimental and predicted values. The results showed that the new model was found best described the artificial and natural drying kinetics of cocoa under the conditions tested

Review of food toxicological issues associated in rubber products

Over the centuries, rubber latex gained its popularity in machinery application due to its unique thermal properties, high elasticity and excellent impact resistance. It is widely accepted in food industry as rubber has good resistance to chemicals, including acids, alkalis and salts. For instance, rubber components comprise of couplings, shields, dust covers, gaskets and seals exist as group or standalone component in food manufacturing equipments or machinery. Even though most of the rubber based products in food industry fulfil the requirements of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, the presence of trace amount of chemicals upon the preceding processing of rubber might accidentally contaminate to the food products. The contamination that happened might caused changes in food quality in term of taste, smell or even visual appearance. Therefore, this paper aims to review some of the manufacturing process of natural rubber products and to understand the possibility of extractable and leachable contaminated food products. An overview of potential toxicological problems will be discussed and the finding will be summarized in this paper