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Production of Tomato Powder by Refractance Window

Drying
a a a a a
M. Castoldi , M. F. Zotarelli , A. Durigon , B. A. M. Carciofi & J. B. Laurindo
a
Department of Chemical and Food Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina,
Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
Accepted author version posted online: 10 Dec 2014.

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To cite this article: M. Castoldi, M. F. Zotarelli, A. Durigon, B. A. M. Carciofi & J. B. Laurindo (2014): Production of Tomato
Powder by Refractance Window Drying, Drying Technology: An International Journal, DOI: 10.1080/07373937.2014.989327

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 PRODUCTION OF TOMATO POWDER BY REFRACTANCE WINDOW

DRYING

M. Castoldi1, M. F. Zotarelli1, A. Durigon1, B. A. M. Carciofi1, J. B. Laurindo1

1
Department of Chemical and Food Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina,
Florianópolis SC, Brazil

Corresponding author: E-mail: joao@enq.ufsc.br

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Abstract

The aims of this work were to investigate the drying of tomato pulp by refractance

window (RW) and the effects of process conditions on the drying rates and on the

characteristic of the dry powder. Different heating water temperatures (65, 75, 85, and 95

°C) and pulp thickness (2 and 3 mm) were studied for drying 4.8-5.2 °Brix pulps. The

powder characteristics were assessed from its solubility, dispersion time, water sorption

isotherm and color. The shorter drying time (17 minutes) was observed to the lower pulp

thickness and higher drying temperature. The solubility of tomato powders was

approximately 80%, and the dispersion time was lower than 1 minute. The color change

(ΔE) of rehydrated powder showed an increased with increasing process temperature.

These results indicate that RW is an adequate procedure for the production of tomato

powder.

KEYWORDS: Food drying; tomato; powder; thermography; refractance window.

INTRODUCTION

1
 Tomato is an important worldwide commodity, and a highly appreciated fruit, consumed

raw and also as juice, sauce and as ingredient of numerous gastronomic recipes.

Moreover, tomato is very nutritious and has high lycopene content, an antioxidant

compound supposed to reduce cancer and heart disease risks[1]. As tomato is very

perishable, new processes that extend its shelf life and preserve its nutritional and sensory

characteristics are necessary. Among the food preservation processes, drying is a suitable

option when to goal is the production food powders, including tomato powder, which is
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ease to use, transport and storage[2].

One of the most widely used drying process for food powder production is the spray

drying, and the application of this technology to tomatoes has been broadly

investigated[3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Goula and Adamopoulos[3] investigated the influence of spray

drying conditions on tomato powder properties. The influence of process variables (inlet

air temperature, drying air flow rate and compressed air flow rate) on the moisture,

solubility and particle density were evaluated. They reported that the increasing of air

flow rate decreased moisture content and particles solubility, whereas increased particles

density. Models to predict the response of each property to the spray drying conditions

were proposed.

The same authors conducted experiments with tomato pulp without carriers using a

laboratory spray dryer, with inlet air temperatures between 110 °C and 140 °C, outlet air

temperatures between 66 °C and 91°C, and drying air flow rates in the range of 17.50-

22.75 m3 h-1[5]. Moisture content of the tomato powder varied from 4.16 to 11.27% (wet

2
 basis) and product yields ranged from 13% to 28%, depending on the process condition.

They reported that the tomato pulp became sticky, leading to a large accumulation on the

drier chamber wall. To reduce this drawback of spray drying processes, the same authors

investigated the effects of preliminary air dehumidification on product yield. According

to the authors using the same drying conditions, the modified spray dryer system results

in a product yields increased to the range of 36.62 to 65.86%[6]. In a second part of this

study, Goula and Adamopoulos[7], characterized the tomato powder produced in the
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modified spray dryer system. The analysis realized were: moisture, solubility, density

(bulk and packed). On other work, Goula and Adamopoulos[8] investigate the influence of

maltodextrin addition on powder properties during spray drying of tomato pulp in

dehumidified air. Thus, maltodextrin addition improved powder hygroscopicity, caking,

and solubility.

As alternative to the spray drying process, refractance window (RW) drying has been

investigated[12] to produce films, flakes and powders of several foods. In this process, a

transparent polyester mat has its lower surface in contact with hot water circulating in a

reservoir. Thus, thermal energy from hot water is transferred to the solution deposited as

thin film in the upper surface of the polyester. The polyester film (mat) used is

commercially known as Mylar (DuPont, USA) and is partially transparent to infrared

radiation[13]. In this way, convective, conductive and radiative heat transfers from water

to the drying pulp are present in this process[12,13]. According to Nindo and Tang[10], in

RW process is possible to maintain the food at a relatively low temperature, when

compared to drum-drying processes. In literature, has been reported that the temperature

3
 of the pulp remains around 70-74 °C, when heating water temperature of 95 °C are used

for drying pulp films with thicknesses of less than 1 mm[12,14,15,18,19].

RW process has been successful applied for drying pulps of fruits and vegetables, as

reported by Abonyi et al.[15], from investigation about the effects of different drying

process on the quality retention characteristics of strawberry and carrot purees. The

reported results showed that carrots dehydrated by RW had color properties comparable
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to the fresh product, while the carotenoids losses were 8.7, 4.0, and 56.1% for the

products dried by RW, freeze-drying and drum drying, respectively. The retention of

ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in strawberry powder was quite similar in the products

dehydrated by RW and freeze-drying. In a similar study with asparagus, Nindo et al.[12]

found that RW dried product was almost identical to the raw material and superior to

freeze drying.

Abul-Fadl and Ghanem[17] replaced the polyester by glass in a RW system and dried

tomato pulp, with different water temperatures (60, 75 and 90 °C) and product thickness

of 1-1.5 mm. The authors compared the results obtained with this “modified RW system”

(as glass has very low infrared radiation transparency, this is not a RW process), with

those prepared by convective drying with preheated air at temperature of 60±2 ºC and air

velocity of 2.1 m s-1. The time required to dry the tomato pulp by the modified RW

process was lower than in convective drying, with lower production costs per kg of

tomato. The product characteristics, as bulk density, rehydration rate, and nutrients

4
 retention (as lycopene, acid ascorbic and flavonoids) were higher in the modified RW

process, when compared to convective drying.

The aims of this work were to evaluate the feasibility of drying tomato pulp by

refractance window, for obtaining tomato powder, as well as assessing the influence of

pulp thickness and water temperature on the drying rates and on some physical-chemical

properties of tomato powder.

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

Preparation Of Tomato Pulp

Santa Cruz tomatoes (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) used in this study were purchased in

retail stores in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. The fruits were selected according to their

degree of ripeness observed by visual analysis and soluble solids concentration (°Brix).

The selected tomatoes had soluble solids content ranging from 4.8 to 5.2 °Brix,

determined with a manual refractometer (Reichert, Model AR200, USA). The fruits were

washed and ground in a household blender (Arno, São Paulo, Brazil) to obtain the tomato

pulp. Before the drying processes, the pulp was sieved using a 16 mesh sieve in order to

retain large particles (seeds, peel).

Batch Refractance Window Dryer

For the RW drying, a batch-operated laboratory-scale RW dryer was built using the same

principle used in industrial equipments[12,13,18]. The device, shown in Figure 1, consists of

a container (0.8 m × 0.4 m × 0.05 m) with hot water circulating from a thermostatic bath

5
 (DIST, model DIST921, Brazil) and of a plastic film covering its top. The 0.25 mm thick

mylar film (D type, DuPont, USA) was attached to the top of the reservoir with its lower

face in contact with the circulating hot water, while its upper face served as support for

the spread fruit pulp (fruit pulp film) to be dried. The thickness of the mylar film was

chosen based on literature data[12]. The tomato pulp was spread over the mylar film with

the aid of a doctor blade, which allows the layer thickness to be adjusted.
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Drying Rates Of Tomato Pulp

The drying curves were determined to four different water temperatures (65, 75, 85, and

95 °C) and two pulp thicknesses, obtained from doctor blade gaps of 2 mm and 3 mm.

These conditions were selected based on previous investigation (data not shown), which

showed that temperatures below 65 °C lead to long drying times. Usually, the operational

temperature of refractance window drying is approximately 95 °C. The temperature range

of 65 °C to 95 °C was investigated to verify the influence of this variable on the process

evaporative capacity and on the product characteristics. The pulp thicknesses were

chosen in order to obtain a homogeneous spread.

The experiments were carried out in triplicate for each experimental condition (hot water

temperature and doctor blade gap). The ambient conditions (relative humidity – RH and

temperature) were monitored using a thermohygrometer with accuracy of ±2.5% RH

(Testo, model 610, Germany).

6
 During the tomato pulp drying, the evolution of the drying pulp moisture was determined

by gravimetric method, using a vacuum oven (TECNAL, model TE-395, Brazil) at 70

°C[20]. In this procedure, samples from the central region of the pulp layer were taken

over time and moisture content was assessed in triplicate.

A linear function was fitted to moisture content vs time data. For each replicate, the

drying rate was obtained by the function slope and it was presented as a mean value.
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Temperature Measurements

The evolution of tomato pulp temperature was determined by T-type thermocouples

(IOPE, model TF-TX-A-R-30AWG, Brazil) connected to a data acquisition system

(Agilent, model 34970A, Malaysia) and recorded by a computer. The thermocouples

were identified and placed in five regions of the pulp and in different points inside the

reservoir to record the water temperature. The time-temperature evolution was also

measured with a thermal imager (FLIR model T360, Sweden) camera, when the

experiments were carried out with hot water at 95 °C and doctor blade gap (pulp

thickness) of 3 mm. In this case, to standardize the thickness of the pulp and to delimit

the area of measurement, a 3 mm-thick metal frame was used. This frame was attached to

the mylar film and the tomato pulp was spread inside. This way, the film thickness was

fixed with the aid of a sliding ruler. Before the image recording, some parameters were

set in the thermographic camera, such as the distance between the camera and the tomato

pulp surface, the emissivity of tomato pulp, ambient temperature and relative humidity.

The camera was positioned at a distance of 50 cm from the drying surface. Due to the

7
 high moisture content in the pulp (about 95±0.5% in wet basis), its emissivity was

considered the same as that of water (ε = 0.96)[17]. The ambient relative humidity (RH)

and temperature were measured with a thermohygrometer with an accuracy of ±2.5% RH

(Testo, model 610, Germany). The images were analyzed with the software FLIR

QuickReport 1.2 SP2, which provides maximum and minimum temperatures and values

at spots of a given image area.

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Powder Characterization

After RW process, dried pulp tomato samples were powdered in a knife mill (TECNAL,

TE 631/2, Brazil). The powder was characterized by determining: water activity (aw),

water sorption isotherm, dispersion time, solubility and color.

Water Activity

Water activity (aw) was determined using water activity meter (Aqualab, Decagon

Devices, USA). For each experiment, the water activity was determined in triplicate.

Sorption Isotherms

Sorption isotherms were determined by the gravimetric method, from tomato powder

samples previously dehydrated in vacuum oven (TECNAL, model TE-395, Brazil) at 70

C for 8 h. Samples of 0.5 g of tomato powder were weighed and conditioned in hermetic

desiccators with different saturated salt solutions at 25 °C[18]. Guggenheim-Anderson-de

Boer model (GAB - Equation 1) was fitted to the experimental data of equilibrium

8
 moisture by a non-linear regression method, using MATLAB® R2010a software, version

7.10.0 (Mathworks, Natick, USA).

CkW0 aw
Weq (1)
[(1 kaw )(1 kaw Ckaw )]

in which Weq is the equilibrium moisture content in dry basis (d.b.), W0 is moisture

content in the monolayer in d.b., C is the Guggenheim constant (that can be related to the

total heat of sorption of the first water layer), k is a constant (that can be related to the
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total heat of sorption of the water multilayer).

Dispersion Time

The dispersion time was defined as the time needed to complete the spontaneous wetting-

and-immersion of 1 g of powder sample poured on a liquid surface. The experimental

device consisted in a container with 80 ml of water at 27 °C. Overhead the container,

approximately 1 g of tomato powder was conditioned on a slider, which separates the

powder and the liquid surface. The measurement of the dispersion time began when the

powder sample and the liquid were brought into contact by quickly removing the slider

that separates the powder and liquid[23,24]. These essays were carried six times for each

sample, used to calculate the average dispersion time.

Solubility

The solubility (S) of tomato powder was determined based on the method reported by

Dacanal and Menegalli[25], small with modifications. The solubility test consisted of

adding 1 g of tomato powder to a vessel containing 100 cm3 of distilled water at 25-27 °C

under agitation, maintaining the height of the vortex at 30 mm. After 1 min of agitation,
9
 the solution was quickly filtered and the filter containing the non-dissolved particles was

dried in a convective oven at 105 °C during 24 h. The solubility of the powder in water

was evaluated from the fraction of non-dissolved material. The analyses were carried six

times, to calculate an average solubility.

Particle Size Distribution

The particle size distribution of tomato powder produced by RW (water temperature of

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95 °C and pulp thickness of 2 mm) was determined using a particle size analyser

(Malvern Mastersizer 2000, Malvern Instrument Ltd., UK). Ethanol (99.5%) was used as

a dispersing medium for the powders. The particle size distribution was determined in

triplicate. The average Brouckere’s (D[4,3]) diameter was determined by the Equation 2.

n
n di4
i 1 i
D 4,3 n
n di3
i 1 i (2)

in which di is the particle diameter (mm) and ni is the particle number.

Color Analysis

The colorimetric analyses were carried out using the CIELAB scale. The parameters L*,

a* and b* were measured with a HunterLab color meter (HunterLab, MiniScan EZ

4500L, USA). Corresponding L* value (lightness of color from zero (black) to 100

(white); a* value (degree of redness (0–60) or greenness (0 to -60); and b* values

(yellowness (0–60) or blueness (0 to -60) were measured for all the powder samples, and

of tomato pulp before drying and reconstituted tomato pulp (for comparison with the

original pulp). Powder rehydration was carried out by mixing the powder and distilled

10
 water until the powder was completely mixed. The mass of distilled water was

determined through a mass balance, from the initial and final (reconstituted) pulp

moisture content. The color changes of the reconstituted pulp with respect to the original

pulp were computed as ∆E (Equation 3).

2 2 2
E L*0 L* a0* a* b0* b*
(3)

in which the subscript “0” denotes the color properties of the original pulp.
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Statistical Analysis

The software Statistica 8.0 (Statsoft Inc., Tulsa, USA) was used to perform the statistical

analyses of the results of drying rate, dispersion time and solubility. A multiple

comparison of means was analyzed by using the Tukey test at the 90% confidence level

(p < 0.10).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Drying Rates

RW drying curves of tomato pulp for both doctor blade gaps (2 mm and 3 mm), at four

water temperatures (65, 75, 85, and 95 ºC), are shown in Figure 2 (for better

visualization, for each condition, only one experimental replicate is presented). Drying

rates, determined from linear regressions of experimental data, are presented in Table 1.

As expected, shorter processing times and higher drying rates were observed with the

increase of the water temperature and the reduction of the doctor blade gap. At the

highest water temperature (95 °C) the time to reach the moisture content of 0.03 g g-1

(d.b.) increased about 30% (from 17 to 22 min) when the doctor blade gap was changed
11
 from 2 mm to 3 mm. According to the Beer’s Law, radiation suffers an exponential

attenuation as function of material thickness[26]. In this way, the increase of pulp

thickness decreases the influence of the infrared radiation on the pulp heating, and

increases the resistance to conductive heat and mass transfer, which controls the water

vapor removal from the drying pulp.

The effect of product thickness on the drying time was reported by the literature. Ochoa-
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Martínez et al.[27] dried mango slices by RW with water temperature of 90 °C and two

fruit thickness. The times required to achieve moisture content of 0.02 (dry basis) were

20 min and 60 min, for samples with thicknesses of 1 mm and 2 mm, respectively.

Caparino et al.[16] dried mango pulp by RW in a continuous dryer, with water temperature

of 97 °C and pulp thickness of 0.5-0.7 mm. The authors reported that the moisture

content of 0.017 (d.b.) was reached in approximately 3 minutes. Abul-Fadl and Ganem[17]

conducted tomato pulp drying in RW modified (replacement of polyester for glass) using

pulp thickness of 1 to 1.5 mm and water temperature of 60, 75 and 90 °C. According to

the authors the drying times were 75, 60 and 40 minutes, respectively for the

temperatures mentioned. The final moisture content observed for these authors was

approximately 0.12-0.15 g water/g dry solids.

In the present study, for the temperatures evaluated, the drying rate decrease when the

pulp thickness was reduced from 3 mm to 2 mm, reductions of 73%, 46%, 43%, and 43%

for water temperatures at 65, 75, 85, and 95 °C, respectively. Also, when the water

temperature was changed from 65 to 95 °C, drying rates increased 2.3 and 2.8 times for

12
 pulps layer of 2 mm and 3 mm, respectively. However, the increase of temperature from

65 to 75 °C did not cause significant modification in the drying rate at both thicknesses.

The relative influence of radiation heat transfer is more important at higher temperatures,

once it is proportional to T4, while conduction heat transfer varies linearly with the

temperature gradient, ∆T[21].

Figure 3 shows time-temperature evolutions of drying pulp during a RW process

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performed with water at 95 °C and 3 mm of pulp thickness, determined by

thermocouples, while Figure 4 shows thermographs of the pulp surface during drying.

At the beginning of the drying experiments, the temperature of the mylar surface (Figure

4a) was slightly lower than the circulating water temperature. After spreading on the

mylar surface, the pulp temperature increased (Figures 3, 4b, and 4c), to approximately

70 °C, which was relatively stable during the constant drying rate period. According to

Nindo and Tang[13] RW drying allows drying fruit pulps at low temperatures and short

drying times, contributing to maintain the product quality. This is a positive property of

RW when compared to spray drying and drum drying. Literature have reported that RW

drying system that uses hot water at 95 °C lead to product temperature of approximately

70-74 °C[12,15,14,16], which corroborate the results observed in this study. No data on the

drying rates during RW was found in the available literature.

The records of the thermocouples (Figure 3) show some differences among the

temperatures measured in different regions of the spread pulp. This variation is mainly

13
 due to uncertainties in the thermocouples insertion into the pulp layer, but also to the

differences on the pulp thickness. After 10 minutes of processing, a decreasing of the

temperatures recorded by the thermocouples (Figure 3) was observed, caused by the

displacement of the thermocouple tip due to pulp shrinkage. Approximately half of the

pulp free water was removed in these ten first minutes of process (with circulating water

of 95 °C and pulp thickness of 3 mm – Figure 2d).

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Until approximately 15 minutes the temperature remained constant (close to 70 °C) as

showed by Figures 3 and 4d. The thermographies depicted in Figures 4e and 4f showed

that the pulp temperature increased up to 88 °C in specific regions. As thin fruit pulp

layers suffer shrinkage during drying, the use of thermography is more appropriate that

thermocouples for determining drying times of a material with accuracy, as also reported

by Vadivambal and Jayas[28].

Water Activity And Sorption Isotherms

The water activity of tomato pulp before drying was 0.997±0.004. After the RW process,

the tomato powder presented values between 0.262 and 0.293 (Table 2), considered

appropriate to preserve this product[29]. Caparino et al.[16] reported a similar value from

RW process applied to mango pulp: aw = 0.177, using circulating water at 97 °C and pulp

thickness between 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm. Pavan et al.[14] reported aw = 0.240 for açaí pulp

dried by RW with circulating water at 94 °C.

14
 The experimental data of water sorption isotherms of tomato powder produced by RW

(water temperature of 65 and 95 °C and pulp thickness of 2 and 3 mm) are shown in

Figure 5. The GAB model fitted well these. The estimated parameters are presented in

Table 3. The sorption isotherms fitted with the GAB model are of type III, according to

Brunauer’s classification[30], characteristic of products with sugar or salt[29]. Goula et

al.[11] determined water sorption isotherms of tomato powder produced by spray drying,

which were well represented by the GAB model, with determination coefficient (R2)
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greater than 0.99. Tonon et al.[31] investigated the sorption isotherm of açai powder, dried

in spray drier with 6% of carrier agents (maltodextrin 10 and 20 DE, gum arabic and

tapioca starch). Type III isotherms were observed when fitted with GAB and BET

models. This type of curve was also observed by Gabas et al.[32] to pineapple powder

dried in vacuum oven with 18 % of maltodextrin and gum Arabic, and by Caparino et

al.[19] to mango powder dried by pilot-scale RW using circulating water at 95-97 °C.

The monolayer moisture content (W0) estimated by the GAB model is considered an

important value to predict food stability[33]. The W0 values estimated for the tomato

powder were close to 0.09 g g-1 (d.b.) for all evaluated process conditions. According to

Goula et al.[11], rates of deteriorative reactions, except oxidation of unsaturated fats, are

minimal at moistures lower than W0. The equilibrium moisture reported by these authors

(0.16-0.17 g g-1, d.b.) was higher than the value found in this study.

15
 The behavior observed indicates that these products require more attention when stored at

temperature of 25 °C and relative humidity higher than the range of 43%, due to the

water adsorption that leads to equilibrium moisture contents greater than W0.

The C values obtained from GAB model to tomato powder varied from 0.773 to 2.334,

while the K value varied between 0.944 and 0.995, which are in agreement with the

values obtained by Goula et al.[11], Tonon et al.[31] and Pavan et al.[14] for tomato powder
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dried by spray drying, for açaí juice dried by spray drying with carrier agents and for açaí

dried by refractance window, respectively.

Dispersion Time, Particle Size Distribution And Solubility

The values of dispersion time and solubility of the tomato powder dried by RW, for all

experimental conditions, are shown in Table 4. The dispersion time was lower than 9 s

for all the evaluated conditions. As evidenced by the statistical analysis, tomato powder

produced with circulating water at 95 °C tend to present different values from the

dispersion times of powders (10% significance level) produced by the other drying

conditions.

Moreover, the pulp thickness spread with doctor blade gap of 2 mm showed lower

dispersion time than the pulps with the gap of 3 mm. The relatively short times of powder

dispersion (Table 4) indicate that refractance window's powders showed good wettability

characteristics. The dispersion time can suffer influence of other parameters (i.e., particle

size, density). The literature reports that larger particles present higher wettability than

16
 fine particles, which is indicated by the ease of immersion of a mass of powder when

poured on a water surface[24]. The powders produced in this study were submitted to a

grinding process in a knife mill, which influences the particles sizes and geometry. The

range of particle size distribution of tomato powder produced by RW is presented in

Figure 6. The powders showed monomodal distribution, ranging from 1.25 μm to 2187

μm. The average particle diameter (D[4,3]) was 204.70 10.50 μm.
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The solubility values observed for tomato powder produced with doctor blade gap of 3

mm did not show significant differences (p > 0.1) for the evaluated temperatures.

Nevertheless, the solubility values of tomato powder produced with the doctor blade gap

of 3 mm were lower (87.11 to 89.31%) than those observed for powders produced with

the doctor blade gap of 2 mm (from 90.54 to 94.76%), except for the process performed

with circulating water at 85 °C. The solubility of a powder can be influenced by many

factors, as drying process, process time, temperature and residual moisture[2].

The difference in the values of both time dispersion and solubility observed for the

powders produced with 2 mm and 3 mm can be explained by the drying process. The 3

mm thick pulp was submitted to a longer exposure to the drying conditions, which

influenced the solid matrix formation, particularly its morphology and density. Abul-Fadl

and Ganem[17] used a modified RW for drying 1-1.5 mm thick tomato pulp at different

water temperatures. They reported solubility values that are lower than those found in the

present work. Furthermore, they reported that the temperature of the circulating water had

small influence on the powder solubility, i.e., the solubility decreased from 65.94% to

17
 63.13% when the water temperature changed from 60 °C to 90 °C. The drying times

reported by these authors were higher than the values found in the present study.

Goula et al.[7] reported the reduction of tomato powder solubility produced by spray

drying at high drying temperatures. Moreover, in the case of spray drying, besides the

temperature, other process conditions can influence the powder solubilty, as air flow rate

inside the drying chamber. The air flow rate influences the powder moisture content, and
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low moisture content is associated with fast dissolution[34].

Color Parameters

The color parameters L*, a* and b* of tomato powder are shown in Figure 7. Tomato

powder samples produced with both thicknesses (2 mm and 3 mm) not showed browning

when the temperature was increased from 65 to 85 °C. Luminosity (L*) values, for this

conditions, changed from 51.69 to 53.44. Nevertheless, a reduction of this parameter for

49.00 was observed when the water was at 95 °C, indicating browning of the sample.

This color change is due to non-enzymatic browning or Maillard reaction and ascorbic

acid oxidation, which occur at relatively high drying temperatures and at extended

exposure times of the samples[35,36].

As red is the dominant color on tomato pulp, the parameter a* of Hunter scale (redness)

is an adequate to distinguish the color changes due to the drying process. The tomato

powder produced with water temperatures of 75, 85, and 95 °C and pulp thickness of 2

mm showed higher values of a*, when compared to 3 mm thicker pulp layer. The lower

18
 values of a* was observed to the higher temperatures in both thickness. Highest a* values

can be associated to lycopene content that is responsible for the redness color of tomato,

which is dependent of the product maturation degree. When the fruits are thermally

processed, lycopene can be released from cellular matrix and a reversible isomerization

of trans-lycopene might occur, resulting in more oxidizable cis-isomers, therefore a

lowering of the reddish and lightness tendency[37,38,39]. The oxidation depends on factors

such as the processing conditions, moisture, oxygen, temperature, light and lipid
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content[40].

The color parameters L*, a* e b* and the total change (ΔE) of tomato powder rehydrated

are shown in Figure 8. Luminosity L* of the rehydrated samples showed small variations

under the evaluated conditions. Nevertheless, it is observed a reduction of L* with the

increasing of water temperature, indicating the browning of the rehydrated samples for all

assessed conditions. The highest values of the chromaticity a* were observed for 2 mm

thick pulps, for all water temperature evaluated. The lowest value of a* of rehydrated

powders was observed for water temperature at 95 °C.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The drying curves of tomato pulp indicate that infrared radiation emitted by the hot water

contributed to the heat transfer during drying, and is more important at smaller pulp

thickness and higher water temperature. These results indicate that tomato powder with

suitable characteristics can be produced by refractance window. The influence of

inactivation of tomato pulp enzymes before drying on the powder characteristics must be

19
 investigated. Thermography is a very useful tool for monitoring pulp temperature during

drying, as well as to determine the end of the process. With regard to powder

characteristics, tomato powders show solubility of approximately 80% and relatively

short dispersion time in water.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors thank to CNPq/Brazil, FAPESC-SC/Brasil and CAPES/Brazil for financial

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support.

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24
 Table 1. Drying rates of tomato pulps by RW with pulp thickness of 2 and 3 mm and with

the water temperatures of 65, 75, 85, and 95 °C.

Process Drying rate

water Mean value and standard Coefficient of

temperature deviation (g g-1 min-1) variation (%)

( C)

Pulp thickness (mm)

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2 3 2 3

65 0.52±0.08aC 0.30±0.01bC 15% 3.3%

75 0.51±0.07ªC 0.35±0.06bC 14% 17%

85 0.86±0.05ªB 0.60±0.04bB 5.8% 6.7%

95 1.20±0.13ªA 0.84±0.17bA 11% 20%

*a-b Means with the same superscript letters within a line indicate no significant

differences (p<0.10).

** B-A Means with the same superscript letters within a column indicate no significant

differences (p<0.10).

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 Table 2. Water activity of tomato powder obtained by refractance window

Process water Pulp thickness (mm) Water activity

temperature (oC)

65 2 0.293±0.018

3 0.262±0,008

75 2 0.267±0.022

3 0.272±0,011
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85 2 0.276±0.017

3 0.272±0,019

95 2 0.292±0.007

3 0.269±0,023

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 Table 3. Parameters of the model fitted to experimental tomato powder obtained by

refractance window

Process Pulp Parameters

water thickness W0 C K R² RMSE

temperature (mm) (g g-1)

( C)

65 2 0.0928 2.3348 0.9631 0.9947 0.0178

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3 0.0916 2.2039 0.9636 0.9932 0.0199

95 2 0.0929 2.0055 0.9595 0.9921 0.0212

3 0.0929 2.0170 0.9572 0.9935 0.0188

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 Table 4. Dispersion time and solubility of tomato powder obtained by refractance

window

Process water Dispersion time (s) Solubility (%)

temperature Pulp thickness (mm)

( C) 2 3 2 3

65 4.13±0.38bB 5.90±1.11aB 94.76±1.25aA 87.11±1.52bA

75 4.22±0.98aB 5.34±1.49aB 94.05±1.18aAB 88.18±1.44bA

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85 4.08±0.11bB 6.11±1.15aB 90.54±1.04aC 89.31±1.86aA

95 6.19±1.54bA 8.65±0.62aA 92.58±1.58aB 88.55±1.35bA

*a-b Means with the same superscript letters within a line indicate no significant

differences (p<0.10).

** B-A Means with the same superscript letters within a column indicate no significant

differences (p<0.10).

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 Figure 1. Sketch of the refractance window experimental device.
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 Figure 2. Drying curves (moisture content vs time) of tomato pulps during RW process

with pulp thickness of 2 mm (*) or 3 mm (□) and water temperature at 65, 75, 85 or 95

°C.
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 Figure 3. Time-temperature evolution of tomato pulp during RW with pulp thickness of 3

mm. The symbols T1 (Δ), T2 (□), T3 (*), T4 (○) and T5 (◊), corresponding to the five

different thermocouple.
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 Figure 4. Infrared thermography during refractance window drying of tomato pulp with

water temperature of 95 °C and 3 mm of thickness pulp.

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 Figure 5. Sorption isotherms of tomato powder dried by refractance window in following

conditions: doctor blade gap of 2 mm and water temperature of 65 °C (○) and water

temperature of 95 °C (□); doctor blade gap of 2 mm and water temperature of 65 °C (*)

and water temperature of 95 °C (◊); lines indicate GAB model fitting.

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 Figure 6. Particle size distribution of the tomato powder dried by refractance window at

water temperature of 95 °C and doctor blade gap of 2 mm.

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 Figure 7. (a) Lightness (L*), (b) a* values and (c) b* values, of the tomato powder dried

by refractance window at different water temperature and doctor blade gap of 2 mm (□) e

3 mm (○).
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 Figure 8. (a) Lightness (L*), (b) a* values, (c) b* values and (d) (ΔE) of the tomato pulp

reconstituted at different water temperature and doctor blade gap of 2 mm (□) and 3 mm

(○).
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36