COMBINING DRYING METHODS FOR CANDY MANGO (<I>Mangifera indica</>) var. Kent

In this work, osmotic dehydration (OD) and air drying (AD) are combined in order to produce crystallized mango keeping the organoleptic properties of the fresh fruit. Mango fruits are cut into cylinders of 1.5cm diameter and 2cm height; they are osmotically dehydrated during 72 hours and then dried with air at 35ºC to reach 68 and 72 Brix degrees (ºBx). The treatment begins with an osmotic pre-treatment (OP), with different sucrose solutions at 25, 35, 45, 55 and 65ºBx and applying a vacuum pulse (50mbar) during 10 minutes, after which the samples are left 20 minutes more to atmospheric pressure. Next, the samples are submerged into a solution of 65ºBx and are left to atmospheric pressure until reaching 72 hours of total treatment. In the same way, other sample is treated with a 45ºBx sucrose concentration solution during the whole process. The dry samples are characterized by analyzing the amounts of mass, volume, moisture and soluble solids. Mass and volume losses are lower for the samples treated with 25, 45 and 65ºBx solutions during the osmotic pre-treatment. It is also observed that the 25ºBx sample gains a significantly higher amount of soluble solids compared to the rest of the samples, while water diffusivity during the drying process is higher for the samples treated in less concentrated solutions