OPTIMIZATION OF OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OF HONEYDEW USING RESPONCE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

ABSTRACT:C, concentration of 65%, time of 2.76 h and agitation of 14999.80 Re. At this optimum point, water loOsmotic dehydration of honeydew was carried out to evaluate the effect of process parameters on mass transfer using response surface methodology. The optimum processing conditions was determined to yield maximum water loss and weight reduction and minimum solid gain during. The experiments were performed according to Central Composite Design (CCD). The independent process variables for osmotic dehydration process were temperature (40-60°C), concentration (45-65% by weight), agitation level (5000-15000 Reynolds number) and processing time (120-240 minutes). Solution to sample ratio (12:1) and sample size (20mm) were fix. The increasing effect of turbulent level of agitation up to the level of 20000 Re on WL in high concentration indicated that the agitation of osmotic solution must be determined with respect to concentration and temperature of solution. WL decrease or increase regressively with long time. Hence, it can be concluded that for a higher efficiency of process, time has to be limited. The optimization process, considering economical, industrial and quality related constraints, was obtained at temperature of 57oss and solid gain were found to be 0.703 (g/g fresh sample) and 0.080 (g/g fresh fruit), respectively.