Effect of Osmo-air drying on quality of dried onion

Abstract

Osmotic dehydration is a process of partial removing of water from food by immersion of the product in a hypertonic aqueous solution. This study aimed to investigate  the effect of osmotic dehydration on quality of hot- air- dried onion. Azarshahr red onion variety was used for the experiments. In order to define an optimum condition for osmo-drying process, some parameters including temperature, time and concentration of dehydration solution was evaluated. Based on water loss(WL) and solid gained (SG), the best treatment of temperature, time and concentration of dehydration solution were determined as 40˚C, 1 h and %5 respectively. One series of samples were prepared and dried in oven at 65˚C for 12 h. These samples were packed in two different ways including aluminium foil under the pressure of inert gas and in polyethylene packs. The samples were kept in ambient temperature. Every 2 months during storage period, parameters  such as rehydration and organoleptic properties were performed on the samples.The results organoleptic test revealed that, the quality of samples decreases after 4 months of storage.Moreover, the samples that were packed by polyethylene showed the most desirable properties. Among osmotic samples, the degree of rehydration of the sample prepared with concentration of % 5 in 40˚C in 1 hour and packed in foil under inert gas, was greater than the other osmotic samples. Rehydration parameters had direct relation with temperature and the time of rehydration. Therefore, the amount of rehydration improves with increasing time and temperature