Chapter 1 Introduction

Tomatoes and cauliflower are rich sources of nutrients and antioxidants which play significant role
in human diet. Tomato is the second most important vegetable after potato and is cultivated
widespread throughout the world. Tomato throughout the world was reported approximately
37,814,000 metric tons per annum. It contains high amount of vitamins and minerals and therefore
play an important role in human diet. Tomato is first among all the vegetables on the basis of
nutritriental content. It is production the most consumed vegetable either fresh or in processed
form. It is consumed in large amount as fresh (salad), processed (sauces, beverages and
concentrates) and dehydrated (as a component of fast foods and as spice in dishes). Tomato is good
source of nutrients and bioactive elements like lycopene, carotenoids, phenolic acids and
flavonoids which are good source of antioxidants. Lycopene has great tendency to fight against
cancer and reduce cholesterol level. High moisture content up to 93-95% make tomatoes highly
seasoned. Large amount is available in the right season. A huge amount is lost at peak harvesting
seasons because of its highly perishable nature and due to poor processing and storage conditions
(Yusufi et al., 2017).

Cauliflower is considered as the healthiest vegetable because it contains versatile nutrients.

Cauliflower is good source of Sulphur, flavonoids, phytonutrients and minerals. Cauliflower is
free of fat and cholesterol so can be used to control obesity. Cauliflower when consumed green is
good source of protein and vitamin B. Due to presence of antioxidants cauliflower inhibits cancer,
heart diseases and diabetes. Pakistan is included in the top ten cauliflower producing countries
and is important cash crop. Cauliflower is a winter season vegetable and is delicate to warm or hot
weather. Cauliflower contains 95% water so moisture should be removed to store cauliflower for
long duration (Gupta et al., 2012).

Fruits and vegetables have very short shelf life due to their extremely perishable nature as their
water content is up to 80%. They are vulnerable to spoilage caused by microbes and enzymes due
to their rapid growth in high moisture environment. Due to high moisture content, fruits and
vegetables are also highly seasoned. To avoid spoilage, post-harvest and storage losses, moisture
content should be reduced. These losses can be minimized by lowering the moisture content up to
10%. Different methods are used to count down moisture content. Drying is the removal of
moisture due to heat and mass transfer simultaneously. Moisture is transferred to the surface and

1
then evaporated or evaporated inside and then transferred to the surface. Drying is the most
convenient and conventional way among all preservation and processing methods for lowering
moisture content to the levels such that microbial and enzymatic reactions are significantly
minimized (Chou and Chouhan, 2001).

Post harvest losses for fruits and vegegetables are about more than 40%which are due to improper
post harvest ,conditioning and storage techniques.National markets have grown which produce
improved quality of product by processing operation and availability of seasonal food products
have been extended by processing operations which also act as preservation methods.In processed
form,dehydrated fruits and vegetables are most common because they retain original
characteristics of commodities,minimize transportation costs and the product is also ready to serve
(Luanda et al., 2006).

Goals of drying processes are summarized below as described by (Zhang et al., 2006).

a. Socio economics: To achieve optimum quality of the product at reduced and affordable
costs
b. Quality of product: To minimize degradation in quality by physical and chemical reactions,
to reduce structural changes of product, to control product density and to obtain desired
properties of dried product like product stability in storage, color and taste etc.
c. Environmental aspects: To minimize loss in wastage of material and energy consumption,
therefore reducing environmental impact

Drying methods are divided in various aspects. Drying methods can be divided by the way of
their working mechanizm as batch type and continuous. On the basis of heat supply mechanism,
drying methods are divided into conductive, convective, radiative and dielectric. In conductive
dryers, material is heated by direct contact with heating medium. Examples of conductive heating
is heating of pan directly over fire. Most types of drying processes are convective in which heat
supply is by hot gas(air) which has direct contact with the product to be heated. Common type of
convective dryer is hot air dryer. Most of thermal dryers are convective in nature. Electromagnetic
waves whose wavelength is ranged between solar radiations to microwaves can also be used for
drying purpose and categorized as radiative heating. Common example of radiative heating is
Infrared heating. Dielectric heating is the type of drying in which dielectric material is heated by

2
placing inside the electric field. Drying in microwave is common example of dielectric heating
(Motevali et al., 2014).
Drying commonly involves two major processes which take place simultaneously during heating,
are heat transfer for evaporating water molecules from the food product and mass transfer (usually
vapors) from the surface of food material. There exists relationship between heat and mass transfer
phenomina and food material itself. Heat and mass transfer phenomina greatly influences the
quality of dehydrated product. Nutritional value, color, texture, taste and flavor are dependent on
drying conditions. Drying conditions are chosen according to product sensitivity to heat, amount
of moisture to be removed and physical structure of the product to be dried. Therefore, appropriate
drying systems should be selected to have effective and efficient drying (Berk, 2009).
Drying is also an energy intensive process utilizing most of energy among the other processing
methods in the food industry. Furthermore, water removal during drying process is accomplished
with structural deformation and decrease in external volume. Rehydration is the measure of
cellular and structural disruption measured by the ability of dried sample to rehydrate. In drying
process irreversible rupture and shrunken capillaries characterized by reduced hydrophilic
properties. Water loss and heating cause stress in cellular structure leading to shape change and
reduction in internal dimensions. Therefore, new and effective methods of drying should be
developed to minimize structural changes and energy consumption (Hafezi et al., 2016).
Different methods of drying are used for tomato and cauliflower drying which are described as
freeze drying, heating by microwaves, solar drying, convective drying and open sun drying. These
mehtods has their own advantages and disadvantages in various sense. Fruits and vegetables are
rich source of beta-carotene and ascorbic acid, these nutrients are unsafe to heat and therefore their
loss occur during thermal drying methods. Highly hygroscopic products undergo more changes in
texture, taste and color. During drying process, some individual components undergo changes due
to increase in solid concentration which results due to water removal during drying. Pectic
substances undergo changes in structural modification of the cell wall which correlates changes
in texture in dehydrated products. Difference in flavor before and after drying between fresh and
dried products is due to some heat sensitive volatile and aromatic compounds loss during drying.
For heat sensitive compounds, effect of dying method on nutrient loss is key factor to select drying
method. Freeze drying is ranked first to achieve high quality dried product especially in case of
heat sensitive products. But the limitations of freeze drying are high capital cost, loss of aromatic

3
compounds during evacuation of gases by vacuum pump and long time of operation. Due to high
capital investment freeze drying is only suitable for highly commercial food commodities which
are highly sensitive to heat (Launda et al., 2006).
Fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and other agriculture products are preserved by conventional method
of sun drying. Sun drying is free and renewable energy source. Furthermore, sun drying has no
advese effects on environment and is inexhaustible. But there are various drawbacks of sun drying
which are risk of unsafety by rodents, animals and birds, decomposition of nutrients by direct
contact of solar rays, surrounding moisture uptake and rain, product contamination by dirt and dust
particles. Labourious work and large time is required for drying the product by sun drying as food
product has to be protected in night and in rainy weather and requires protection from household
animals. Product is also at risk of infestation and microbial growth due to time gaps in drying the
product. So, Sun drying is not an option for tomato and cauliflower due to long duration and
uncontrolled seasonal variations. Uncontrolled conditions for long duration may cause changes in
physical and chemical characteristics of the product to be dried (Gumusay et al., 2015).

Drying time can be reduced to 65% in solar tunnel dryers in comparison with open sun drying
process as interior temperature of dryer is high than outside. Quality of products is improved in
the sense of food safety, cleanliness, reduced moisture content upto safe level, taste and color.
Moreover, food product becomes safe from rain, dust and insects. Also it can reduce product losses
and is economical than traditional drying. Product can be dried at night or in bad weather by using
an extra heater. This method is limited to just small scale as time taken by solar is also long
relatively because of working only in day time. Solar drying needs extra source of energy like
burning gas to work in bad weather which needs extra charges and the process becomes costly if
extra source of energy is provided. Product quality is also not much better because of color and
volatile compounds losses (Tiwari, 2016).

Hot air or convective drying is used widely after sun and solar drying but has the drawbacks of
discoloration, surface heating, shrinkage of product and low power efficiency. Sun and hot air
drying both results into nutritional losses and non-functionality of bioactive compounds. But there
are some known drawbacks of this method. Less energy efficiency and long drying duration
specifically during the period of falling rate are well known. Severe shrinkage upto 80% occurs in
convective drying .The main reasons of these disadvantages are non uniform and overheating at

4
exposed surface and collapse of cell tissues, which cause decrease in rate of mass transfer and
sometimes poor rates of heat transfer. Longtime exposure to high drying temperatures in hot air
drying results into significant loss of quality characteristics such as color, nutrients, flavor, texture
and cause high shrinkage, reduce rehydration capacity and damage to sensory characteristics
(Chou et al., 2000).
Vacuum drying overcome the overheating issue associated with other methods of drying by
removing water at lower temperature. A number of fruits and vegetables are dried by vacuum
drying. Vacuum drying avoid structure collapse and provide oxygen deficient environment for
oxygen sensitive bioactive compounds. The issues with this method are poor mass transfer rates
and long time. Efficiency and mass transfer rates can be increased by combining with other
methods (Chou et al., 2000).
Food materials are poor conductors of heat due to which more shrinkage and thermal degradation
is observed in conventional thermal drying methods. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves
having wavelength ranging from 1mm to 1m and has the advantages that they can easily penetrate
upto the depth of 12cm of the food material, reduce process time of conduction and absorbed
specifically by dipolar water molecules of the food product. Higher drying rates are achieved by
boiling of interior water and escape of vapors to outer surfaces developing higher pressure
gradients between water molecules at inner and outer surfaces of the food material. Loss of
nutrients and degradation of biological compounds is also negligible.Process of heating by
microwaves is based on rotation of dipolar water molecules and molecular ionic motion.
Volumetric heating occurs due to friction exististing between moving particles which exists due
to dipolar rotation of molecules and motion of ions by conduction. As major portion of food is
water which is dipolar, so heating mechanism by dipolar rotation becomes dominant. Magnetron
of microwave oven generate electric field, water molecules absorb microwave thermal energy and
rotate rapidly in the electric field in the electric field direction and cause collision with other water
molecules. Therefore, kinetic energy is produced by oscillations of water molecules and is
transferred to other molecules by collision process. So, heat is produced in this way. Second
process of heating by microwaves is the ionic motion. Chareged molecules like salts consists of
positive and negative ions. One type of particles moves in one direction and oppositily charged
ions move in opposite direction in electric field. This collision of oppositely charged ions provide
kinetic energy and heat is produced (Zhang et al., 2006).

5
Two or more methods of drying are combined together to utilize advantages of both methods
collectively. In drying process, combination of two or more drying methods is called hybrid drying.
Benefits of microwave heating can be enlarged by combining with other drying methods.
Microwave heating combined with convective drying is also used for drying food commodities.
Microwaves awhen combined with hot air reduces shrinkage and degradation associated with hot
air drying especially when applied in falling rate drying period. Microwave-hot air drying has been
used for fruits and vegetables. But overall shrinkage and thermal degradation losses are not
overcome which are resulted at initial stage by convective drying (Ando et al., 2018).
Microwave heating combined with vacuum drying significantly reduces shrinkage and thermal
degradation because vacuum drying sinificantly reduces these losses and microwaves effectively
evaporates moisture in falling rate drying period as most of shrikage losses occur in falling rate
drying period.Microwave vacuum drying collectively give benefits of both methods, microwave
and vacuum drying. Microwave drying reduces process time of conduction which is more
important in low conductivity food commodities in final stage of drying, when thermal
conductivity decreases due loss of moisture content, giving high heat transfer rates and vacuum
drying add benefit of rapidly removing escaped moisture from the surface of material by vacuum
and therefore lowering vapor pressure and consequently reducing pressure to less than atmospheric
pressure which lowers boiling point of the product to be dried. So combination of microwave and
vacuum drying is specifically more beneficial for low conductivity and heat sensitive food
commodities (Hue et al., 2006). Microwaves combined with vacuum drying gives us the benefits
of both techniques. Rapid heating is accomplished by microwaves at low temperature in low
temperature boiling environment produced by creating low pressure vacuum. Microwave vacuum
drying has efficient drying rates as well as good retentention of nutrients (Ando et al., 2018).
The aim of my study is to design and fabricate microwave vacuum drying system and check its
effects on drying and quality characteristics of vegetables.
Objectives:

a) Design and development of combined vacuum-microwave based drying technology.

b) Evaluation of novel technology on quality parameters of vegetables (tomato and cauliflower).

c) Reduction of microwave heating effect on drying characteristics of vegetables

6
Chapter 2 Review of Literature
Drying or dehydration of food material is required to carry out under low temperatures to avoid
thermal degradation of organoleptic properties. Fruits specifically with high sugar content are very
sensitive to be processed to high temperature and long time. Vegetables containing sensitive
bioactive compounds, loses their functionality at high temperature of drying. Conventional
convective and conductive methods of drying cause thermal degradation and nutritional losses.
Thermal and drying efficiency is also significantly low and are least energy efficient. Microwave
vacuum drying is an alternative way of drying to get better quality dried product. This method is
more efficient than freeze drying regarding time consumption and quality of the dried product
which is similar to freeze drying. It was observed as cost effective than freeze drying. Microwaves
penetrate into the internal structure of food material. Vacuum accelerate diffusion of water vapors
at higher rates and at low temperature so minimize time of drying. Color and nutritious contents
such as vitamin A&C, thiamin and carotenoids are successfully preserved due to low temperature,
short time duration and absence of oxygen during drying (Song et al., 2018).
Microwave-vacuum drying shortens the time drying by 70-90% and reported to be faster than
other drying methods. Low shrinkage, high rehydration capacity and high porosity with soft texture
was observed during microwave-vacuum drying process. Retention of vitamin C content up to
84.1%, chlorophyll up to 32.6% and great retention for α- carotene, vitamins A, B1, B2 and B3
was observed (Celeste Karam et al., 2016).
Microwave-vacuum drying was studied in comparison with conventional microwave drying and
hot air drying methods. Drying rate constant observed in microwave-vacuum drying was greater
than microwave and hot air drying methods. Color loss in microwave-vacuum drying was less than
other two used methods. Microwave-vacuum drying was studied in comparison with hot air drying
to achieve improved uniformity of drying for mango slices. Hot air dried samples were observed
to have high moisture content in the Centre while microwave-vacuum dried samples were observed
with uniform dried surface and less moisture content in Centre (Pu and Sun, 2015). Strawberries
were dried by microwave-vacuum drying to check effect on storage stability. Microwave-vacuum
dried strawberries showed high storage stability and extended shelf life (Bruijn et al., 2015).
Song et al. (2018) carried out microwave-vacuum drying process for drying of black berries to
study the effect of microwave power and vacuum degree on the temperature of blackberries.
Blackberries are heat sensitive food commodity which undergo loss of nutrients by heating at high

7
temperature. In drying process, moisture is removed by heating the food commodity and hence the
main purpose of heating or drying is to remove moisture while avoiding denaturation of nutrients.
The main purpose of experiment was to achieve uniformity in temperature distribution in the
drying cavity because hot spots and cold spots are formed due to difference in temperature
distribution. Formation of hot spots and cold spots can be minimized by minimizing temperature
difference which can be achieved by manipulating drying parameters. Proper combination of
microwave power, vacuum degree and time of drying is used to achieve optimum conditions of
drying which are required for heating of blackberries to avoid loss of components and thermal
degradation. Location of hot spots and cold spots was observed and optimum power and vacuum
degree was applied to minimize temperature difference within the heating cavity. It was reported
that heating uniformity in microwave-vacuum drying could fulfill the industrial requirements for
heating of black berries. Temperature difference was just 0.27 and temperature of hot spots was
maintained at about 60℃ by applying microwave power of 400W and -80kpas vacuum degree for
2min.
Zielinska et al. (2013) evaluated the effect of microwave-vacuum drying on drying kinetics of
green peas. Drying rate is an important factor in the drying process. High drying rate shows
removal of large amount of moisture in short time interval. Microwave-vacuum drying results into
high drying rate and short time of drying which are main requirements in the drying process. The
application of microwave-vacuum drying technique increased the drying rate upto 0.08l/min. The
drying rates in microwave-vacuum drying and hot air drying were observed simultaneously and
found to be 0.59l/min and 0.20l/min respectively. High drying rates in drying processes are
associated with the rupture of internal cell structure and shrinkage of tissues because rapid
movement of water molecules cause collision with the cell walls and damage cell structure. But in
microwave-vacuum technique high drying rates was achieved as well as minimum changes were
found in the microstructure of the dried sample.
Cui et al. (2005) investigated the effect of temperature change of product during microwave-
vacuum technique for thin slices of carrot. Relation of temperature variation with slice thickness
and dimension was evaluated. Rates of heat and mass transfer can be controlled by thickness and
dimensions of sample, therefore temperature change can be controlled by changing thickness of
sample. Critical thickness for carrot slice was 8mm. for samples with thickness less than 8mm the

8
surface temperature was same with the core temperature of sample. If the sample thickness is more
than 8mm, there develops a temperature gradient along thickness of sample.
Jeni et al. (2010) observed that microwave heating combined with vacuum drying has great
potential for obtaining high quality dehydrated biomaterials. Experiment was carried out in
commercialized biomaterial dryer for microwave-vacuum drying of tea leaves. Experiments
showed that high power level of microwave could cause burning of the tea leaves to be dried.
Drying at 385torr ensured safe drying in shortest time with better overall quality while rotation of
rotary drum was kept at 10rpm and therefore this combined technique was chosen as an appropriate
technique for drying of tea leaves. The major issues associated with conventional hot air drying
are thermal degradation and shrinkage. The reason behind that is the reduction in rate of drying in
the final stage. In final stage, drying rate doesn’t increase but supplied energy is used due to which
cause damage to structure of the product and burning of the food commodity.
Mousa and Farid (2002) carried out vacuum drying for banana slices in domestic microwave oven
to study the effect of vacuum on thermal and drying efficiency. Temperature rises from beginning
of drying to saturation temperature then drops suddenly and again rises slowly until removal of
most of free moisture. Thermal and drying efficiencies were observed to be high at start at 100%
moisture content and dropped to about 30% to 40% at the end of drying. The reason behind was
assumed that there was high water content at the start and removed easily and quickly but at the
end as moisture was reduced both the efficiencies were reduced because of presence of small
moisture content. It was also observed that when vacuum was applied in the last stage of drying
when thermal and drying efficiencies were dropped, both the efficiencies increased by applying
vacuum especially when moisture content was low. The big issue associated with the other drying
methods was the reduction in the drying rate and efficiency and subsequentally shrinkage of
structure and rupture of cell tissues in the final stage, was solved. It was suggested that microwave
power should be high in beginning of drying and should be reduced gradually as moisture content
decreases to avoid loss of energy and damage because of burning. At all stages of drying, thermal
efficiency was less than drying efficiency because of sensible heat contribution to the drying
process. Microwave-vacuum drying was recommended as more efficient to dry paste, porous food
material and powders. Combination of microwave heating and vacuum drying methods increased
heating rates 20-30 times than obtained in freeze drying. Capital cost was also 60% less than that
of freeze drying and operating costs were claimed to be reduced 3-4 times because of high solid

9
content of the concentrate. so microwave vacuum drying was also economically pheasible and
ranked between spray drying and freeze drying economically.
Ashraf et al. (2012) dried the paste of date fruit by microwave-vacuum drying at different
temperatures and sample thickness. As temperature increased and sample thickness decreased,
drying time significantly reduced. The behavior of drying was observed to be in falling rate instead
of constant rate drying. Moisture diffusivity was observed to increase with increasing thickness
and temperature of sample. The drying characteristics were studied at three temperature levels 60,
70, 80 and at three thickness values 1, 1.5 and 2 cm in labo scale vacuum chamber. The
experimental data of moisture loss obtained from the experiment was fitted to eight drying models.
The modified Henderson-pabis, Verma and Jen-das models were best fitted to the drying behavior.
Dependence of temperature on moisture diffusivity was described by Arrhenius equation.
Dong et al. (2018) studied microwave-vacuum technique for drying of coffee beans and the effect
of microwave power on the drying behavior was evaluated. Drying time was reduced to about 7-8
times when microwave power was decreased from 2kw to 0.3kw because kinetic energy of water
molecules has decreased due to decrease in supplied energy. The model which was best fitted to
the kinetics of drying was Page model. It was observed that high microwave power levels from 1-
2kw resulted into moisture removal slow in the start, fast in the middle and then slow in the end.
It was due to the reason that in the beginning stage microwave power was low as compared to next
stages, then in the middle stage drying rate was high due to removal of large amount of water at
high microwave power and in the last stage of drying microwave power was high but most of water
was lost in the previous stage and left small to be removed in this stage. But low power of
microwave resulted into moisture removal which had approximate uniform speed of water removal
throughout the whole drying. The surface temperature rise shows relation between temperature
and bioactive contents of the food material. Infrared thermal imaging camera was used to measure
temperature during the drying process which showed that surface temperature change became
more variable after 60-75min of drying. Great change was observed in cytoplasmic bulk water and
bound water. Thermal processing of coffee beans enhanced TPC, DE, L* and b* values along with
increase in antioxidant activity. No change was observed in a* values in microwave vacuum drying
of green coffee beans. TPC values and antioxidant capacity was higher at higher values of oven
power than at lower power and similarly color values were also different at high microwave

10
powers. Oxygen deficient environment achieved by removing oxygen and creating vacuum
improved the TPC, antioxidant capacity, L* and b* values.
Ivoneve et al. (2018) carried out an experiment on microwave vacuum drying of alfaalfa in a
continous operation drying apparatus to study retention of carotene by this process. Carotene
retention during drying process and storage was measured and concluded that good retention of
carotene resulted by microwave vacuum drying. Carotene loss in low amount during drying
process was observed which was reported to be due to application of vacuum at lower temperature.
Low amount of carotene was also lost during storage of alfalfa which was interpreted as
isomerization of carotene reducing its oxidation. It was observed that carotene content was reduced
in 180 days of storage to 18%.
Zaki et al. (2007) reported that microwave-vacuum process has been of great discussio among.
The power of microwave and vacuum degree plays a major role in assurance of improved product
quality . The purpose of this research was to evaluate the power and pressure effect on drying
characteristics of Carica papaya L. during microwave-vacuum drying process. Papaya samples
were dried in microwave-vacuum drying equipment at different levels of power (110, 380 and
750 W) and pressure (200mmHg, 450mmHg and 700 mmHg) to get 90% loss of moisture. Drying
rate was found to increasing by increasing power, while pressure effect on the moisture content
loss was not significant. Higher microwave power level shortend the time of drying the papaya.
The overall drying of the samples was observed to occur in the falling rate period. Various studies
on microwave heating and microwave-vacuum drying processes also proved that the constant rate
drying period was not observed during the whole drying process of papaya , banana, peach,
mushrooms and apples. However papaya has high moisture content, constant rate period was not
viewed in the current study, may be it was because of the management of layers of layers and sharp
microwave heating, which sharpen the process of drying. The results showed that sharp mass
diffusion was observed during higher microwave power because more heat was produced inside
the samples, generating larger pressure gradient between the inside and the surface. As desired,
higher rates of moisture evaporation were achieved with higher microwave power levels. It was
observed that drying rates were high when higher moisture content was present and decreased as
moisture content decreased. At low moisture there was no difference in the drying rates at different
power levels which was due to internal resistance influence on moisture removal at low moisture
inside the material. Absorbed microwave energy by the sample was found to be dependent on the

11
dielectric properties of the food product and the electric field strength of magnetrons. Dielectric
loss factor value was higher at higher water content so the more microwave power was absorbed
by the product and rapid heating effect was observed at higher water content. As drying proceded,
moisture loss in the product reduced the absorption of microwave energy and resulted in fall of
the rate of drying. It is clear that the overall drying of the samples was found to occurr in the falling
rate.
Clary et al. (2007) dried grapes by microwave-vacuum drying by temperature manipulation to
control microwave power effect which had a role in improving the process performence.
Temperature of grapes was measured by infrared imaging technique. Product surface temperature,
time of drying and moisture content values were used in multi linear regression for prediction of
puffing characteristics of grapes . The objectives of this study were the determination of specific
energy on the basis of temperature, evaluation of the specific energy effect on puffing of grapes
and comparitive analysis of the product nutritional content between sun drying and microwave-
vacuum.Temperature was found as the most valuable factor. Microwave-vacuum dried grapes
were compared to sun dried raisins on the basis of nutritional value. High shelf life of dried grapes
was observed by microwave vacuum drying. Vitamin A content was higher in the microwave-
vacuum dried grapes but not detected in the raisins and ascorbic acid, vitamin B1 and B2 were
also in higher amount in the grapes dried by microwave-vacuum than in the raisins. Regarding the
heating effect on sensitive elements, better retention of vitamins was observed as compared to sun-
dried raisins in the samples dried at 71 ◦C by using microwave-vacuum drying technique. The
noticeable difference was found in vitamin A content, which was nondetected in raisins which was
made from the same grapes. Vitamin A content was measure in the fresh fruit at 80 I.U. but not
detected in the raisins. This is consistent with the study of Lin and others (1998). Vitamin C content
was also in higher amount in the microwave-vacuum-dried samples as vitamin B1 and B2. These
results were applied to a continuous process microwave vacuum drying system that had feed rate
of 13.6 kg/h. Final moisture content was 4.5% (wb) and specific energy consumption was 0.808
W-h/g f. process temperature of 54 ◦C and a specific energy of 0.738 W-h/g dried grapes with a
low portion of puffed character and higher final moisture content (8.0%). In treatments where
temperature and specific energy were higher, a larger portion of the dried grapes was puffed and
had lower final moisture content, 80% and about 5.0%, respectively.

12
Jałoszyński et al. (2007) observed the effect of pressure in microwave vacuum drying on the
aromatic compounds of parsley leaves. Testing of the extract was carried out using gas
chromatography. Four characteristic compounds were obtained during the examination and the
degree of their degradation as the function of pressure was determined. It was proved that the
microwave-vacuum method was observed as lower degradation process for compounds than
during the convective process. During the study it was not observed that pressure had any on the
reaction of aromatic compounds in leafs of parsley. It was found that the pressure didn’t have any
role in the drying kinetics in low range values. An additional reduction of the contact with oxygen
can be obtained by using reduced pressure. A significant pressure reduction results in a drop of the
water boiling point, as water boils at 16℃ at pressure of 2kPa and for 8 kPa it boils at 42℃.
During the microwave-vacuum drying no significant role of pressure was observed within selected
pressure range on the degree of reaction of aromatic compounds in leaf parsley.
Sunjka et al. (2004) studied two drying methods in comarison, microwave-vacuum and
microwave-hot air for cranberries and their advantages and drawbacks relating to the quality of
dried product and their the process performance was evaluated. Pretreated berries mechanically
and osmotically were dried and quality of dried product was evaluated. Parameters of quality were
color, textural characteristics, and organoleptic properties (color, texture, taste, and overall
appearance). Special emphasis was given to the energy consumption of the process, monitoring
the time-temperature profile, and the total on timeof microwave oven. Two microwave power
levels were evaluated alongwith different microwave power on-off periods. Microwave-vacuum
drying showed improved characteristics as compared to microwave-hot air drying in aproximate
all quality parameters. Mass of water evaporated per unit supplied energy revealed that
microwave-vacuum drying was more energy-efficient than microwave-hot air drying. Sensory
evaluation results showed slight preference in all parameters for microwave-hot air dried samples.
Several differences were detected between microwave-hot air and microwave-vacuum drying and
were evaluated as: Color parameters for both drying methods were very similar. It was concluded
that microwave power level and microwave on-off cycle had more effect on color than vacuum
or hot air application. Texture was dependent on method of drying, and microwave-vacuum dried
cranberries exhibited soft texture and toughness was also low as compared microwave-hot air
drying. Total input power was higher during microwave-hot air drying, which confirmed better
energy consumption of microwave-vacuum drying process, confirmed higher drying effeciency

13
and cumulative values of energy efficiency. Organoleptic properties showed that there was no
significant difference in all tested parameters like color, taste, texture and overall appearance.
Microwave-hot air dried cranberries were more praised by sensory panel judges than microwave-
vacuum dried, but both of microwave drying methods were evaluated better than simple hot-air
dried. Nonuniformity of microwave dried samples was very serious problem that needs to be taken
into acount. Hot air drying was performed only for comparison, temperature of the hot air was
62℃ and velocity was 1.0 m/s. Hot air drying took almost 4 hours, therefore temperature profile
was made for only first 30 min as drying temperature remained constant afterwards. Oscillations
during both microwave methods were evaluated due to temperature increase in microwave power-
on time and temperature decrease during microwave power-off time. Average temperature of
microwave-vacuum drying process was slight lower than during microwave-vacuum, which was
expected, because in the microwave-vacuum drying additional amount of thermal energy was
supplied with hot-air. expected temperature of cranberries was approximately 27℃, which is water
evaporation temperature at 3.4 kPa pressure, because of generation of internal heat had increased
temperature of the sample, indicating that microwave power supplied was too high. temperature
of 27℃ could be achieved with precise control of microwave power input and regulation of
vacuum. Heat generation build up inside is evident because cranberries has complex system and
have poor thermal diffusivity and have nonuniform temperature profiles. High temperature upto
80℃ in microwave-vacuum process can be demonstrated with high initial moisture content of
cranberries as higher water content can absorb more microwave energy. Temperature of sample
become stable as water content decreases.
Zhang et al. (2016) dried wild cabbage by microwave-vacuum drying method. drying behaviour
of wild cabbage chips dried by microwave-vacuum, hot air drying, and microwave freeze drying
was evaluated for comparison. Few quality characteristics of wild cabbage chips like toughness,
color and sensory attribustes were measured. Results revealed that there was reduction in drying
time as microwave power was increased and in hot air drying decreased due to decrease in drying
temperature. Time of drying was the shortest for the microwave-vacuum drying. Optimum quality
of dried chips was achieved with microwave-freeze drying process at a microwave power intensity
of 2.0 W/g. Different drying methods including microwave-freeze drying, microwave-vacuum
drying and hot air drying and drying conditions were evaluated for drying restructured wild
cabbage chips. Results showed that drying time was decreased and the drying rate was increased

14
with increasing microwave power and working temperature. The fastest method of drying was
microwave-vacuum method, which consumed less than 1 hour for drying.
Hai- jun et al. (2012) dried berry slices by microwave-vacuum drying method to study the
simulation of temperature for berry slices in microwave-vacuum drying technique. Numerical
method was used for simulation of temperature by theoretical calculation and the deviation was
verified throughout the experiment. The uniform and linear relation of temperature between
experimental and predicted values was evaluable except of rapid temperature increase period. The
temperature at the centre was highest and 130.25℃ at 100s, 50℃ at the exterior surface of slices.
Conclusions were made that the model was effective and numerical analysis was able to simulate
the simulation of temperature for berry leather in microwave vacuum drying process. The
mathematical model of the temperature was developed in the microwave vacuum drying process
using software. Heat transfer rate was found to be dependent on temperature due to thermal
diffusion. The rate of heat transfer could be increased by suitable interruption of puffing time to
make better thermal diffusion. The temperature inside the slice increased in three patterns, constant
temperature, steep increase and slow increase. The results of temperature simulation were same as
obtained by experiment, showing that model could predict effectively drying temperature and
numerical analysis could simulate the temperature simulation of berry leather of microwave
vacuum puffed berries.
Tsurata et al. (2015) studied the microwave-vacuum drying effects on the volumetric shrinkage of
food materials. An important issue in food processing is volume reduction now a days. Mechanism
of structure deformation due to shrinkage of structure was observed. Strain and the moisture
content relation was observed for finite element. Finite difference alongwith permeability and
diffusion coeffecient variation depending on moisture content was used for the determination of
water and temperature distribution. Comparison of pridicted values with experimental data for
radishes and carrots revealed that the model could better exhibit the product deformation alongwith
the moisture content of the food materials. Numerical simulations were carried out for the process
of microwave-vacuum drying of carrots, radishes and for tofu determination of shrinkage with
moisture content. It was observed in magnetic rasonance that the centre of the samples was dried
fast than the outer, except the surface layer. Layer was formed at surface having less moisture but
more shrinkage in microwave-vacuum technique. The simulation results showed close values to
the experimental data . Pressure gradient removes the moisture from inside to the outer surface by

15
the volumetric heating by microwaves. It was observed that shrinkage value varries at the critical
moisture content value. It was recommended that the anistropic shrinkage coefficient for food
with fibrous structure should be taken into acount.
Mitra et al. (2011) conducted microwave-vacuum drying experiment for drying of onion slices to
check effect of drying on quality attributes of onion. Response surface method was used to evaluate
the effect of drying temperature and slice thickness on the drying. The main purpose of study was
to attain optimal conditions for onion slices. Optimal temperature was found to be
58.66℃ for safe drying of onions and safe effects on quality of onion slices. The optimum slice
thickness was found to be 4.99 mm for effective drying of onion slices. For commercial
applications, working parameters of onion slices for vacuum drying were obtained at optimum
conditions by using full factorial design. Vacuum dried onion slice were better in quality attributes
specially colour, flavour, and rehydration ratio. The process was optimized with the response
surface methodology to achieve better flavor and colour retention as well as acceptable moisture
content value and better rehydration. The maximum score was given to the retention of flavor
followed by the dried product color values. The optimal condition were observed to be 58.66°C
temperature of drying and 5mm thickness of slice. Low OI value assurres less non enzymatic
browning of samples therefore vacuum dried onion was highly scored.
Meda et al. (2016) carried out microwave-vacuum drying for drying of saskatoon berries for
checking drying parameter’s effect on the drying behaviour. The main purpose of this study was
to get optimal conditions for the effect of microwave-vacuum drying parameters on the quality
attributes of dried berries. Response surface analysis alongwith central composite design was used
to evaluate the effect of microwave-vacuum process variables and to get optimal conditions of
drying. The working variables were modelled effectively as the function of independent
parameters for regression analysis as well as response surface methodology. It was observed that
by regression analysis and response surface methodology that enhancing power of microwave and
time of drying and devaluing fruit load decreased moisture content but enhanced rehydration ratio,
hardness, L value and total color change of the microwave-vacuum dried berries. This study was
found to be helpful for the development of industrial scale microwave-vacuum drying of berries
within the experiment range. It was summarized that properties such as moisture, tehydration,
hardness, L* value and total colot change of microwave-vacuum dried betties were found to be
dependent on the microwave-vacuum drying parameters such as power, time and fruit load.

16
Increasing power of microwave and time of drying and loweting fruit load, lowered moisture
content but enhanced tehydration , hardness value, L* value and total colot change of the dtied
betties. Response surface methodology and a central composite design were found helpful to
develop regression models that can effectively predict the response vatiables as the function of
independent variables and thereby arrive at the optimum microwave-vacuum drying process for
the drying of berries.
The drying rate of the microwave-vacuum process was larger than that of the hot air drying
technique, so microwave-vacuum process can greatly teduce the energy cost of the drying process.
The lycopene and antioxidant activity of the microwave-vacuum dried samples were higher than
microwave and hot air dried samples, and the difference observed in the antioxidant retentention
between the microwave-vacuum and hot ait dried samples was specially notable and significant
(p < 0.05). Microwave-vacuum dried samples were of lighter colot, while microwave and hot air
resulted in dark colot samples. Sensoty score was highest for the microwave-vacuum dried sample
than the other two samples, and highest score was due to sugar content and glutamic acid higher
values and the suitable tatio of sugar content to acidity in the microwave-vacuum dried samples.
It was suggested from the results that microwave-vacuum drying echnique was more suitable and
useful than convective method of drying for obtaining better quality dried tomatoes. Moreover,
the infotmation was provided by the study was helping for the achievement of optimal drying to
get better nuttitional value and improved quality dried tomatoes (Orikassa et al., 2018).
Drying methods had a considerable influence on the drying charateristics such as color and
antioxidant retention of mango slices. Drying time was greatly minimized by microwave-vacuum
drying method than convective and freeze drying. To evaluate drying behaviour of mango, nine
models of drying were fitted. Two-term and Page models had showed similiar results as
experimental data showed. better color values were obtained in freeze drying for the product that
were closest to a, b, L, C and α values of the fresh samples. Microwave drying technique showed
maximum change in color while minimum color change was observed in freeze drying. The
antioxidant retention and total plate count of the dried mango samples were decreased by using
the drying techniques, except microwave drying at 100, 80 and 50W for total plate content. Results
obtained about the correlation analysis between antioxidant capacity and total plate count showed
that there was a very low relation (Izli and Taskin., 2017).

17
Chapter 3 Materials and Methods
This study was carried out for design and fabrication of microwave-vacuum drying technique to
check effect on the drying behaviour and quality attribustes of tomato and cauliflower. The
procedures followed for this purpose are given as below:

3.1 Procurement of raw material for fabrication

The raw material for fabrication of microwave-vacuum drying technique was purchased from
local market of Faisalabad and assembled at Engineering workshop, Samundari road Faisalabad.
The raw material used in the fabrication of microwave-vacuum drying technique was:

 Polypropylene drying chamber

 Teflon lid
 Teflon cylindrical shafts
 Gear motor
 Iron rods
 Pressure fittings
 Pressure guage
 Pressure regulating valve
 Screwed teflon shafts
 Rubber ring

18
 Motor
Rotery system

Vacuum Pump
Microwave oven

Drying Chamber

Fig 3.1. 3D labelled frontview of microwave vacuum drying technique

19
Fig 3.2. 3D backview of microwave vacuum drying technique

20
Fig 3.3 CAD image of microwave vacuum drying technique

21
3.2 Main parts
Some of the parts were fabricated and some were just modified according to the requirement.
Following main parts were assembeled to fabricate the microwave-vacuum drying technique.

3.2.1 Microwave Oven

Microwave oven (Homage, HDG236S) was holed at the top to pass the cylinderical teflon pipe of
the rotary system. Microwave oven was operated at variable power ranging from 10 watt to 100
watt. The input power was 1000 watt and output power was 800 watt. Frequency of microwave
oven was 2450GHz.

3.2.2 Vacuum pump

Vacuum pump (Baoleide, YQQ280D2) was used to create vacuum inside the the drying chamber.
The input energy of pump was 300watt and had capacity upto -29 inch of Hg. Pressure inside the
drying chamber was manipulated using on/off pressure regulating valve.

3.2.3 Rotary system

Rotary system was prepared by using teflon cylindrical pipes of varying diametr. Fixed and
rotating shafts were used in the rotary system. In this system, vacuum pump was attached to the
fixed shaft through pressure fitting and rotating shaft was attached to drying chamber to rotate the
drying chamber. Rotating shaft was rotated by gear motor. Gear motor was attached to rotary
system to rotate drying chamber. Motor was attached to rotatating shaft and shaft roteated the
drying chamber. Input energy of motor was 5W. Motor was operated at fixed rotations of 4 rpms.

3.2.5 Drying chamber

Drying chamber was made of polyproylene because polypropylene is a non toxic material with
proper dielectric properties of dielectric constant ⋶= 2.2 and tan δ= 0.0004. Lid of chamber was
teflon made. Rubber ring was used under the lid to avoid pressure leakage.

3.2.7 Pressure guage

Pressure guage was used to measure pressure inside the drying chamber. Guage was caliberated
from 0 to −29inch of Hg. Guage dial was caliberated both in inch of Hg and mm of hg.

22
3.4 Food Sample procurement:
Fresh tomatoes and cauliflower were purchased from local vegetable market of Faisalabad, was
cleaned and washed with running tab water. Then cut with hand knife into similar slices of
thickness about 5mm for tomato and 3mm for cauliflower slices. The raw material selected for
sample was of same variety and was equally ripened.

3.5 Sample thickness measurement

Sample thickness is a factor which affects drying behaviour and necessary to take into
considerations. Sample thickness affects heat transfer and therefore samples should be of uniform
thickness for uniform and similiar heating. Sample thickness was measured by using digital vernier
caliper (Stanford, GDS115D), which showed exact value of thickness after calculation.

3.6 Determination of moisture content

Sample moisture content was determined by dry oven method (AOAC, 2000) before and after
vacuum drying of sample. Samples were placed inside the oven and oven was set at 105℃ and
dried until constant weight. Sample was weighed before and after the oven drying. Moisture
content was calculated by using equation below

𝑊1 −𝑊2
𝑀. 𝐶 = (3.1)
𝑊1

𝑊1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑊2 are weight of sample before and after the oven drying, respectively.

3.7 Determination of moisture ratio

Moisture content for all the samples was converted to dimensionless moisture ratios assuming the
final moisture content of the sample to be the equilibrium moisture content. Moisture ratio (MR)
was calculated by using eq. 3.2

𝑀−𝑀𝑒
M.R = (3.2)
𝑀𝑜 −𝑀𝑒

Where M is the moisture content of sample at any interval of time (dry basis), 𝑀 𝑒 is the
equilibrium moisture content which is assumed as zero due to vacuum drying conditions and 𝑀𝑂
is the initial moisture content of the sample on dry basis (Saengrayap et al., 2014).

23
3.8 Calculation of drying rate

Drying rate represent the drying behavior by the variation of moisture content against the drying
time. Following formula was used to calculate drying rate as described by (Izli and Esref, 2015).

𝑀𝐶𝑡+𝑑𝑡 −𝑀𝐶𝑡
D.R = (3.3)
𝑑𝑡

Where, 𝑀𝐶t+dt and 𝑀𝐶𝑡 are the values of moisture content at the time t+dt and at the time t,
respectively.

3.9 Texture analysis:

Texture of sample was measured using Stable Micro Systems Texture Analyzer model (TA. XT
Plus). Fracture toughness of sample was referred as texture. Sample was placed on the sapmle and
probe of texture analyzer was moved against the sample (Cui et al., 2008).

3.10 Shrinkage Ratio determination:

Dipolar 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 (𝐷𝑝 ), first equatorial diameter ( 𝑑𝑒,1 ) and second equatorial diameter ( 𝑑𝑒,2 )
of the sample was measured before and after drying of sample in the microwave-vacuum drying
setup to calculate volume of sample by using Vernier caliper.Voume was calculated by using
Equation( 3.4) as described by (Borquez 𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑙. , 2015).

1 𝑑𝑒,1 𝑑𝑒,2
V= 3 × 𝜋 × × × 𝑑𝑝 (3.4)
2 2

Shrinkage ratio was calculated by using formula

𝑉𝑜 −𝑉𝑓
%Volumetric shrinkage = × 100
𝑉𝑜

Where,
𝑉𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑉 𝑓 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔.

3.11 Determination of Rehydration capacity:

Dried sample of about 5g weight was immersed into distilled water in the water bath at
temperature of 25℃. After that sample was removed and sieved through a perforated mesh to
escape attached water particles and weighed after 20min.

24
Rehydration capacity was calculated by using following equation. (3.5) as described by
(Borquez 𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑙. , 2015).

𝑀𝑟ℎ
RC= (3.5)
𝑀𝑑

𝑀𝑟ℎ is the is the weight of rehydrated sample and 𝑀𝑑 is the wight of dried sample.

3.12 Color analysis

Surface color of sample was measured by calorimeter. Color values was recorded by Hunter lab
chromatic system and measured in terms of L* (whiteness or darkness), a* (greenness or redness),
b* (yellowness or blueness). Change in color after drying was referred to as total change in color
(ΔE) and was calculated by the equation as meaured by (Bruijen et al., 2015).

E = √(∆𝐿∗ )2  (∆𝑎∗ )2  (∆𝑏∗ )2 (3.6)

Chroma and WI was also calculated respectively by using

1
𝐶 ∗ = √ ( 𝑎∗ )2 + (𝑏 ∗ )2 WI = 100-[(100 − 𝐿∗ )2 + 𝑎∗ 2 + 𝑏 ∗ 2 ]2

3.15 Drying process working parameters

Five different microwave powers of (10, 30, 50, 80 and 100 watts) and three different vacuum
degrees of (15, 20 and 25inch of Hg) were used in drying process to check their effect on drying
behaviour and rehydration capacity, volumetric shrinkage, hardness and color values.

3.16 Statistcal analysis

All experiments were carried out in triplicate and their means and standard deviations were
determined. The obtained data were analyzed by using Statistix10 (Analytical Software, US

25
Chapter 4 Results and Discussions

This study was carried out for the design and development of microwave-vacuum drying
technique. The goals were to achieve higher drying rates, energy effeciency and better quality of
the dried food product. Moreover, obtaining quality of the dried sample similiar to fresh sample is
the major challenge in drying process. Food material contains bioctive components such as
vitamins and proteins which are sensitive to heat. Conventional methods of drying take long time
for drying food material because of low drying rates and energy effeciency, due to poor
conductivity of food materials and results in nutrient loss and thermal degradation. These issues
were overcome by fabrication of microwave-vacuum drying technique. Microwaves reduce
duration of falling rate period, in which bound water is removed very slowly and most of burning
and overheating occur in this stage. Microwave oven of variable power and time was selected by
which power can be set at low level in falling rate period to avoid burning and over heating.
Furthermore, to remove evapoted water at high speed was achievied by using vacuum pump
because evaporated water condense back to the the drying chamber and slow down the drying
process. All the parts were assembled in the way which were easily dismantled and the oven could
be used for other purposes. Rotary system was fabricated for rotation of drying chamber in the
microwave oven. Upper portion of rotary system was made stationary where vacuum pump pipe
was attached and lower portion was made rotary to rotate the drying chamber.

All the system was made airtight to avoid loss in vacuum degree. Vacuum line was enclosed in
the seconadary cylinderical portion and system was sealed with mechanical seal at the the joints.
Pressure fittings were used at the joints for prevention of air entrance. Rubber seal was used under
the lid of drying chamber to make it air tight. A hole drawn at the top of microwave was also closed
by paper sheet to avoid loss of microwaves. All the material used in fabrication was food grade
and microwave- tolerable.

Working Mechanism

Lab scale microwave-vacuum dryer was designed and fabricated for obtaining high drying
effeciency and drying rates as well as to obtain good quality attributes of dried sample.Food grade
and microwaves tolerant material was used in the fabrication to avoid contamination and
overheating. Food sample was placed inside the drying chamber. Drying chamber was heated

26
inside the microwave oven by microwaves. Drying chamber was rotated inside the microwave
oven cavity by rotary system for fine and uniform heating. Rotary system was attached with
vaccum pump through pressure fittings. Low pressure environment was maintaned inside the
drying chamber by vacuum pump to ensure heating at low temperature.Heat transfer is mainly
associated with microwave heating while moisture and vapors were removed through vacuum
pump. Firslty, vacuum is produced inside the drying chamber and then Microwave power turned
on.Vacuum pump first evacuate the drying chamber then decrease the pressure of drying chamber.
After that remvoves water vapors evaporated to the surface of sample by microwave heating.

4.1 Optimization of drying process

4.1.1 Moisture ratio
Moisture ratio is a unit less quantity which shows the amount of moisture content at a specific time
interval per unit of intial moisture content (Saengrayap et al., 2015). Drying process was carried
out to reduce moisture ratio. Maximum value of moisture ratio was equal to 1 which is at the start
of drying process when moisture content is maximum and decreased as drying proceeded due to
reduction in moisture content. Low value of moisture ratio shows the prescence of low amount of
moisture content and is desired in drying. While high value shows that large amount of water is
present. If moisture ratio decrease rapidly in drying process, duration of drying will be short.

Moisture ratio was plotted against time of drying. Its value decreased with increase in drying time
because water content of sample decreases with increase in drying time. Its value was 1 at the start
of drying and then decreased slowly at the initial stage because first stage is microwave absorbing
or heating stage in which food material just absorb microwave energy and very low evaporation
of water vapors occur. After that its value decreased rapidly in the evaporation stage as water
evaporation occur. And in the last stage of drying its value becomes almost constant as less water
was left behind for evaporation.

Value of moisture ratio was lowest at highest power of 100 watt and highest at lowest power of 30
watt because at higher power more water is removed due to high amount of thermal energy of
microwaves which evaporate heavy amount of water. At higher microwave power, moisture ratio
decrease rapidly just after the initial stage in the evaporation zone. Microwave heating or absorbing
zone is shorter at higher power level and most of water is evaporated in the evaporation zone due

27
to high thermal energy of microwaves and small amount of water is left for final stage due to which
moisture ratio becomes almost constant in the final stage.

1.2
M.R 100 watt
80 watt
1 50 watt

0.8
M.R

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
TIME(MIN)

Fig. 4.1 Graphical representation of M.R at different levels of microwave power

28
Moisture ratio was calculated at different levels of pressure as 15,20 and 25 inch of Hg. Value of
moisture ratio was lowes for lowest pressure of 15inch of Hg and highest for highest pressure of
25inch of Hg. Moisture ratio was lowest at 15 inch . It was due to the reason that at higher pressure,
vacuum supply pipe was filled early with water vapors just in the initial stage due to rapid suction
of vacuum pump and water was entrapped in the supply line which slowed down water diffusion
process. Pressure gradient between drying chamber and vacuum supply line was also decreased
which slowed down water vapors diffusion process. Water diffusion or mass transfer is
concentration dependent phenomina. Higher the concentration gradient, higher will be mass
transfer. While lower the concentration difference, lower will be diffusion of water vapors from
drying chamber to vacuum pump. This large amount of water was not picked up by vacuum pump
fastly. At low pressure, vacuum supply line was not blocked by heavy filling rather water vapors
removed gradually. Diffusion process was not slowed down by water vapors in the vacuum supply
line.

Moisture ratio was calculated at different combinations of microwave power and pressure to obtain
optimum conditions for moisture ratio. Moisture ratio was highest at 100 watt and 15 inch of Hg
and was lowest at 30 watt and 25 inch of Hg. At highest power and lowest pressure, water
evaporates at higher rates due to high amount of thermal energy of microwaves and diffusion
process was high at lowest pressure. At this combination, moisture ratio decrease rapidly in the all
zones of drying except final stage, especially water is evaporated and picked up rapidly in heating
zone. Heating or microwave absorption zone was longest at 30 watt and 25 inch of Hg and shortest
for 100 watt and 15inch of Hg. This was due to the reason that water evaporates rapidly at higher
power and also picked up rapidly due diffusion process at low pressure. At lowest power water
evaporation process is slow due low amount of microwave thermal energy and water is not picked
up rapidly at high pressure due to rapid water filling of vacuum supply line in the initial stage
which prevent further novement of water into the supply line. Saengrayap et al. (2015) showed the
same results as achieved by this study.

29
 1.2 M.R
15inch of Hg
1 20inch of Hg
25inch of Hg
0.8
M.R

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
TIME(MIN)

Fig. 4.2 Graphical representation of M.R at different levels of vacuum

30
It was concluded by this study, moisture ratio was more dependent on microwave power than
pressure or vacuum degree because microwave thermal energy play significant role in water
evaporation process. Higher thermal energy evaporated higher amount of water. While role of
vacuum degree was found just for removal of evaporated water. As microwave power increased
moisture ratio decreased at higher ratio than by decreasing the pressure.

4.1.2 Drying rate

Drying rate was defined as amount of water removed per unit time per unit dry matter as Kg of
water/kg of dry matter.hour (Izli and Esref, 2015). Drying rate shows amount of moisture removed
in unit time. Drying rate tells about the duration of drying that in how much drying time, how
much reduction of moisture content was achieved. Higher the drying rate, shorter will be drying
time and drying will be completed in less time. While lower drying rate shows that duration of
drying was high and required moisture content of the product was achieved in long time.

Drying rate was plotted against drying time to observe drying behaviour. Drying rate was high at
the start of drying process and dcreased as drying proceeds further. At initial stage of drying, drying
rate was high due to the reason that amount of water to be evaporated was high and decreased as
drying time was increased. Drying rate was low in the final stage of drying because less amount
of water was left to be evaporated. Overall process of drying tomato and cauliflower slices was
observed to occur in falling rate drying period as drying rate decrease gradually as drying proceeds.

Drying rate was calculated at different power levels of 100watt, 80watt and 50 watt keeping the
vacuum degree fixed at 25 inch of Hg. to determine optimum drying conditions. Drying rate was
high at high power level. Drying rate was highest at 100W and lowest at 30W. At higher power,
high amount of thermal energy is absorbed by water molecules and large amount of water was
evaporated. At lower power, microwaves of lower thermal energy are produced. This low amount
of thermal energy evaporate less amount of water from food product. Higher drying rates can be
achieved by proper combinations of power and drying time and duration of final stage of drying
can be reduced in which less amount of water is left to be evaporated. Combination of higher
power and less drying time can reduce the length of final stage and higher drying rates can be

31
achieved. Zielinska et al. (2013) showed same results as achieved by this study that drying rate is
higher at higher power of microwave oven.

DRYING RATE
12
80 watt
100 watt
10
50 watt
DRYING RATE(G OF WARWE/G OF DRY

8
MATTER.MIN)

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
TIME(MIN)

Fig 4.3 Graphical representation of drying rate at different levels of microwave power

DRYING RATE
DRYING RATE (GRAM OF WATER/G. OF DRY

20inch of Hg
15inch of Hg

16 25inch of Hg

14
MATTER.MIN)

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
TIME (MIN)

Fig. 4.4 Graphical representation of drying rate at different levels of vacuum

32
Drying rate was also determined at different levels of pressure at 25,20 and 15 inch of Hg keeping
oven power fixed at 100W, to determine optimum conditions for drying rate. Drying rate was
highest at vacuum degree of 15 inch of Hg and lowest for 25 inch of Hg. It was due to the reason
that at higher pressure, vacuum supply pipe was filled early with water vapors just in the initial
stage due to rapid suction of vacuum pump and water was entrapped in the supply line which
slowed down water diffusion process. Pressure gradient between drying chamber and vacuum
supply line was also decreased which slowed down water vapors diffusion process. Water
diffusion or mass transfer is concentration dependent phenomina. Higher the concentration
gradient, higher will be mass transfer. While lower the concentration difference, lower will be
diffusion of water vapors from drying chamber to vacuum pump. This large amount of water was
not picked up by vacuum pump fastly. At low pressure, vacuum supply line was not blocked by
heavy filling rather water vapors removed gradually. Diffusion process was not slowed down by
water vapors in the vacuum supply line.

Different combinations were made with microwave oven power and pressure to obtain higher
drying rates. High power and low pressure were best to obtain higher drying rates. High amount
of thermal energy evaporate large amount of water and this large amount of water was sucked by
vacuum pump by rapid diffusion process.

4.2 Development

According to design shown in fig. microwave oven with external dimensions of (11× 8inch) and
internal volume of 760 𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ3 was holed at the upper side, hloe diameter was of 2.2iches.
Microwave oven had highest working power of 100 watt and fixed frequency of 2450MHz. Drying
chamber of dimensions(7×4 inch) with internal volume 112 𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ3 was placed inside the
microwave oven for heating by microwaves and attached with rotary system to rotate for uniform
heating. Rubber ring of thickness 3.5mm was placed under the lid of drying chamber to make it
airtight by preventing pressure entrancce from outside.

Rotary system was fabricated shown by design in the fig. with two teflon shafts, stationary and
rotating shaft of the same diameter of about 1.8 inch. teflon pipe with diameter of 1.2 inch was
placed inside the stationary shaft whose upper end was connected with gear motor placed at the

33
top of stationary shaft and lower end was kept outside the stationary shaft to connect with teflol
connecting pipe. A small hole was made at the half length of the pipe which was placed inside the
stationary shaft to remove water vapors in stationary shaft. A hole of 10mm diameter was made at
the outer side of stationary shaft to connect with vacuum pump to remove water vapors from
stationary shaft. stationary shaft was attached with vacuum pump by pressure fitting to avoid
pressure entrance was outside of oven while rotating shaft was attached with drying chamber and
was placed inside the oven cavity. Cylindrical teflon connecting pipe of diameter about 1.4inch
was attached with stationary shaft at one end and sealed with mechanical seal to avoid air entrance
while other end of pipe was attached with drying chamber. All the system including inside pipe of
stationary shaft, connecting pipe, rotating shaft was made rotable to rotate drying chamber inside
the oven for fine heating, except stationary shaft.

Power of gear motor was 4W and rotated the drying chamber at rotational speed of 4rpm. Motor
was used to rotate drying chamber in place of turntable because in case of turntable, drying
chamber had to be fixed with turntable and turntable can not rotate large length of rotary system.
Vacuum supply line was attached to the stationary shaft by pressure fitting. Vacumm degree was
controlled by on/off control valve fitted in the vacuum line. Rotary vane vacuum pump of input
power 300W was used to evacuate and creating lowering pressure inside the drying chamber.
Rotary vane vacuum pump was used as it can remove water vapors alongwith creating negative
pressure inside the drying chamber. Vacuum pump had intake and exuast valves. Exaust valves
were used to exaust water vapors from pump casing. Vacuum gauge was connected in the vacuum
line to give pressure reading of drying chamber. Vacuum seal tape was used at all joints and fittings
to the system airtight.

4.3 Evaluation of quality parametrs for dried tomato slices

4.3.1 Rehydratio capacity

Rehydration capacity is considered as index of damage to the product quality caused by

dehydration and shows physical and chemical changes in the structure and in composition of cell
tissues (Huang and Zhang, 2015). Rehydration capacity is the ability of dried sample to absorb
water. Low value of rehydration capacity shows that more tissues were damaged by drying because
water can not be absorbed as pores of tissues are closed due to tissue damage. High value of

34
rehydration capacity represents better quality of dried sample because higher rehydration means
less tissue and structure damage.

Mean values of rehydration capacity are shown in table 4.2. Mean values of rehydration capacity
shows that rehydration capicity decreases from treatment P1 to treatment P5. Mean value of
rehydration capacity for controlled treatment was 1.98. Mean value was highest for treatment P1
and lowest for treatment P5. Mean value of treatment P1 was 3.08 and for treatment P5 was 2.08.
Difference between mean value of controlled treatment and treatment P1 was observed to be 35%
and differnce between mean value of treatments P1 and P5 was 33.5%. Difference between mean
values of treatment P0 and P1 was due to the vacuum application in treatment P1 and not used in
the controlled treatment Po due to which more tissues were damaged and mean value of
rehydration capacity was less than treatment P1. Difference between mean values of treatment P1
and P5 was due to application of more microwave power in the treatment P1 and less in treatment
P5. Owing to the more microwave power application, temperature was higher and more heat was
generated at treatment P1 than P5. Formation of porous structure due to puffing phenomina at

Table 4.1 ANOVA of rehydration capacity of tomato slices

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 5 2.91609 0.58322 3888**
Error 12 0.00180 0.0015

Total 17 2.91789
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

35
 Mean values of rehydration capacity Rehydration Capacity
3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
PO P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.6 Graphical representation of power effect on mean values of rehydration capacity
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.2 ANOVA of rehydration capacity

Source DF SS MS F
Treatment 3 2.00910 0.66970 6697**
Error 8 0.00080 0.00010
Total 11 2.00990
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

36
 Rehydration Capacity
4

3.5
Mean values of rehydration capacity

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
V0 V1 V2 V3
Mean values of vacuum levels
Fig. 4.7 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of rehydration
capacity
Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)
V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

higher temperature increased rehydration. Another reason was the quick elimimination of moisture
at higher power application, which caused minimum internal shrinkage and case hardening.
Mean values of rehydration capacities were plotted against different treatments of vacuum as
shown in graph. Mean value of rehydration capacity for controlled tratment was highest for
treatment V1 and lowest for treatment V3. Reason behind the difference between mean values of
rehydration for V1 and V3 was higher vacuum application aided in safe removal of moisture due
puffing of structure by pressure gradient. Water was evaporated quickly and easily due to pressure
gradient and product shrinkage was minimum. My results match with (Jiang et al., 2011) who
carried out microwave- vacuum drying at power density of 2W/g.

37
4.3.2 Percentage volumetric shrinkage of microwave-vacuum dried tomatoes
Volumetric shrinkage shows loss of structure and is described in terms of change in volume of
sample. As the drying proceeds, the water present in the tissue gets evaporated, which results in
the evacuation of the space inside the tissues. As a result of this, the tissue structure of wet
biological material, being dried, collapses and causes volumetric shrinkage (Chouhan and Srivasta,
2013). It is an important parameter in determinination of quality of dried sample. High shrinkage
value indicates poor quality and low value shows good quality of sample. Mean values of shrinkage
are shown in table. Effect of microwave power and vacuum on percentage shrinkage value has
been studied in this research. Volumetric change during drying is not a simple function to be
predicted easily.
Mean value of percentage shrinkage for controlled treatment of tomatoes is 25.050. Treatment P1
showed highest mean value of shrinkage and P5 showed lowest value. Visual analysis throughout
the drying process showed that volumetric shrinkage is a non-homogeneous process. Heat passes
from walls of surface to inner part of samples independently, resulting in fast and high volumetric
changes. As we know, shrinkage also includes deformation of particle cells.
P5 shows lowest mean value of shrinkage e.g. 10.01 because of heating at lowest power of 10W.
Hence, geometry of sample does not changes quite early and cells structure remains constant. The
reason is that due to increase in power, temperature of the sample accelerates the mass diffusion
process and collapse of sample matix take place. The Anova table shows that microwave power
and vacuum degree significantly (P>0.05) influences the shrinkage value of the dried sample.
Samples volumetric shrinkage rate showed linear trend during vacuum microwave drying. As
temperature rises from 10W to 100W, volumetric shrinkage also increases linearly. So it can be
concluded that vacuum heating temperature is directly proportional to volumetric shrinkage.
Structural changes and quality of tomatoes was also studied by Khraisheh et al., 2004. who
concluded that convective processing exhibited linear shrinkage and rehydration potential of dried
samples are higher in microwave oven drying.
Volumetric shrinkage relation is also directly proportional to the vacuum applied. While heating
tomatoes sample, creating vacuum inside the microwave oven can reduce time of processing. In
this way tomatoes dehydration energy can also be reduced and optimal target moisture can be
achieved efficiently. Mean values of volumetric shrinkage are shown in table 4.4. which shows
Vo has the highest values of shrinkage, because there was no vacuum present during the process.

38
V1 showed highest mean value of rehydration capacity. V3 sample was dried but comparative to
other treatments, result was undesirable. Difference between values of shrinkage of treatment V1
and treatment V3 was due to more puffing of structure at higher vacuum level due to high level of
vacuum. Furthermore, high pressure gradient caused quick escape of moisture. Quick escape of
moisture resulted into minimal shrinkage. Shi et al., 2002 showed same results when tomatoes
were dehydrated after osmotic treatments.
Results during vacuum-microwave assisted are significant which proves that creating vacuum
during drying of tomatoes can dry faster. So higher the values of vacuum created, lower will be
the volumetric shrinkage and vice versa.

Table 4.3 ANOVA of shrinkage

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 5 56.7314 11.3463 56731**

Error 12 0.0024 0.0002

Total 17 56.7338
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

39
 % Volumetric Shrinkage
30

25
Mean values of %Shrinkage

20

15

10

0
P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.8 Graphical representation of effect of microwave power on mean values of

volumetric shrinkage
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.4 ANOVA of shrinkage

Source DF SS MS F

Treatment 3 297.932 99.31 1017**

Error 8 0.001 0.0001

Total 11 297.933

**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

40
 %Volumetric shrinkage

35
Mean values of shrinkage

30

25

20

15

10

0
V0 V1 V2 V3
Different levels of vacuum
Fig. 4.9 Graphical representation of vaacuum degree effect on mean values of volumetric
shrinkage
Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)
V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

4.3.3 Hardness value of tomato

Hardness value represents hardness or softness of the sample. Hardness affects quality and visual
appearance of sample (Cui et al., 2008). High hardness value indicates poor quality and low
hardness value represents good quality. Result obtained showed that skin was ruptured because of
higher hardness when higher force was applied. Lower force was applied when samples were dried
at low temperature, because low temperature did not dry tomato samples completely. Higher the
hardness value, lower will be the quality of sample. Mean value of hardness for controlled
treatment is 10.53. Mean value of hardness is highest for P1 treatment and is 8.03 while treatment

41
P5 shows lowest value of hardness. Increasing storage time reduces hardness of tomatoes while
this cause increase in moisture during. Pre-treatment is required before drying to improve quality
of food product and to minimize quality of product (Abano et al., 2016)

Mean values of hardness of tomatoes during vacuum drying of tomatoes are shown in table 4.5
Hardness has inverse relationship with vacuum. As vacuum during the process increased, hardness
of tomatoes samples started to decrease. High moisture levels in tomatoes makes structure of
tomatoes very soft and sensitive to touch. As shown in table 4.5 at Po when no vacuum was
applied, hardness values are higher as probe of textural analyzer tends to penetrate from outer
surface of tomatoes. At P3, when vacuum was less during the process, probe finds easy way to
pass so the mean value is less.

Table 4.5 ANOVA of Hardness

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 5 11.9918 2.39837 2767**

Error 12 0.0104 0.00087

Total 17 12.0022
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

42
 Hardness
10
9
8
Mean values of hardness

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.10 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of hardness

Po=Controlled (without vacuum)

P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.6 ANOVA of hardness

Source DF SS MS F

Treatment 3 63.9378 99.31 1017**

Error 8 0.0008 0.0001

Total 11 63.9386

**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

43
 Hardness
10
9
Mean values of hardness

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig.4.11 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of hardness

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

4.3.4 Color analysis of dried vacuum-microwave dried tomato slices

Color values shows quality and visual appearance of dried sample. Thermal degradation has main
effect on color values of dried sample. L*,a* and b* values have been under the study to check
the effect of Microwave power and pressure on the color of dreid tomato slices.

4.3.5 L* value

L* value is an indicator of lightness and is of significant importance in determination of color

values of food samples. Values of L ranges from 0 to 100,L*=0 indicates darkness or black color

44
of sample while L*=100 indicates lightness or white color of food sample (Bruijen et al., 2015).
Lightness increases as L* value increases and decreases if L* value decreases. Mean values of L*
is showm in table. Mean value of L* for controlled treatment was 46.04. Mean value of P5 showed
highest L* value which is due to lowest power of 10W of microwaven oven for the same time as
for other treatments and at same vacuum value of 25inch of Hg. Treatment P1 showed lowest mean
value of L* which was due to heating at 100W. As we decrease Power of microwave oven
Lightness value of sample increases because of reduction in heating temperature which affects
color values. At higher power, more thermal energy of microwaves is transferred to the food
product. In the final stage of drying less amount of water is present to be evaporated so the extra
energy is absorbed by the product and loss of lightness occur due to overheating. Lightness value
decreases d The Anova table shows that power of microwave oven affects L* value significantly
(P>0.05). Results of this study close to the research carried out by (Tusurata et al., 2016) for drying
tomato at 200W and 3Kpa. Mean values of L* is shown in table.

Mean value of L* for controlled samples of tomatoes is 46.04. Treatment P3 showed highest mean
L* value which is due to lowest power of 10W of microwave oven for the same time as for other
treatments and at same vacuum value of 25inch of Hg. Treatment P1 showed lowest mean value
of L* which was due to heating at 100W. As we decrease vacuum capacity of pump, lightness
value of sample increases because of reduction in heating temperature which affects color values.
At higher vacuum, more thermal energy of microwaves is transferred to the food product. In the
final stage of drying less amount of water is present to be evaporated so the extra energy is
absorbed by the product and loss of lightness occur due to overheating, lightness value decreases.
The ANOVA table shows that power of microwave oven affects L* value significantly (P>0.05).

Table 4.7 ANOVA of L* values

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 5 46.9492 9.38984 22536**
Error 12 0.0050 0.00042

17 46.9542
Total
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

45
 L* value
53
52
51
Mean values of L* value

50
49
48
47
46
45
44
43
42
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.12 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of L* value

Po=Controlled (without vacuum)

P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.8 ANOVA of L* values

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 3 46.9492 8.38984 21516**
Error 8 0.0050 0.00039
11 46.9542
Total
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

46
 L* value
52
51
Mean values of L* value

50
49
48
47
46
45
44
43
42
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.13 Graphical representation of vaccum degree effect on mean values of L* value

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

4.3.6 b* value
b* value represents yellowness or blueness of sample. Higher the b value,higher will be yellowness
and lower the blueness and lower the b value, higher will be blueness and lower will be yellowness.
b* value ranges between -70 Po +100,negative value shows blueness and positive value indicates
yellowness (Cui et al.,2008). Mean values of b* for different treatments are shown in table. Mean
values of b* decrese from P1 to P5. Mean value of b* for controlled treatment was 9.022. Mean
value of b was highest for treatment P5 at microwave power of 10W while mean value of b* was
lowest for treatment P1 at microwave power of 100W while vacuume degree was kept constant at

47
25inch of Hg. The difference between highest and lowest mean values of b* is due to difference
in microwave power which was highest for treatment P1 and lowest for treatment P5. At higher
power, thermal energy is more to heat the sample. At higher thermal energy slight thermal
degradation occur due to which product loses yellowness. Yellow color is lost due to power of
microwave oven that affects the b* value. ANOVA table showed significant (P>0.05) results.
While light color was seen in P0 (185.50±1.82 CPn). At the end of storage period, result shows
slight difference in color. It shows that towards the end of storage period, values of tomato pieces
started to decrease due to oxidation after drying. After drying of tomatoes, oxidation deteriorates
color, uniformity and taste of samples. Lower color value demonstrate a darker surface color. The
outcomes in this study are in accordance with (Tusurata et al., 2016) for drying tomato at 200W
and 3Kpa. When vacuum is applied to the samples, while light color was seen in P 0 (9.02±0.01
CPn). At the end of storage period, result shows slight difference in color. It shows that towards
the end of storage time, values of tomato pieces started to decrease due to oxidation after vacuum
drying. After drying of tomatoes, oxidation deteriorates color, uniformity and taste of samples.
Lower color value demonstrate a darker surface color. Results are in accordance (Kerkhofs eP al.,
2005) who studied effect of antioxidant drying and color of tomato cultivar drying .

Table 4.9 ANOVA of b* values

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 5 1.54929 0.30986 1923**

Error 12 0.00193 0.00016

Total 17 1.55123
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

48
 b* value
9
8
7
Mean values of b*

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Different power levels

Fig.4.14 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of b* value

Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.10 ANOVA of b* values

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 3 1.54929 0.20985 1722**

Error 8 0.00193 0.00011

Total 11 1.55123

**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

49
 b* value
10
9
8
Mean values of b* value

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.15 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of b* value

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

4.3.7 a* value tomato

a* value shows redness or greeness of a sample (Bruijen et al., 2015). Higher the red color of dried
tomato slices show that color loss in drying is minimum because red color is in excess in tomato
than ohher colors. Color represents the visual appearance of dried product so to maintain the color
of final product is required in the drying. Value of a* can be positive or negative. Positive value
shows redness and negative value shows greeness.

50
Mean values of a* for different treatments are shown in Table. Mean values of a* decrese as we
decrease The power of microwave oven. Mean value of a* for controlled treatment was 7.966.
Mean value of a* for P1 was 6.027 and for P5 was 5.40. Mean value of a* was highest for treatment
P1 and lowest for treatment P5. The reason for this difference is that at higher power, mean value
of a* is higher and lower power mean value of a*is lower. At high power level, due to high
temperature red-colored pigment lycopene degradation occur which causes decrease in redness of
sample.Lycopene is heat sensitive pigment found in tomato which decomposes on high
temperature. A slight decrease in redness is due to degradation of that pigment. At higher power,
thermal energy of microwaves is higher. This thermal energy cause loss of lycopene content.
Anova table shows that a* value depends significantly on power of microwave oven (P>0.05).
Results of this study close to the research carried out by (Tusurata et al., 2016) for drying tomato
at 200W and 3Kpa. Mean values of a* for vacuum assisted drying of different treatments are shown
in table. Mean values of a* decreases as we decrease the vacuum power of microwave oven.
Mean value of a* for controlled treatment was 8.966. Mean value of a* for P1 was 6.027 and for
P3 was 5.63. Mean value of a* was highest for P1 and lowest for P3. The reason for this difference
is that higher vacuum, mean value of a* is higher and lower vacuum mean value of a* is lower.

Table 4.11 ANOVA of a* values

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 5 13.7984 2.75968 8565**
Error 12 0.0039 0.00032
Total 17 13.8022
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

51
 a* value
9

7
Mean values of a*

0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.16 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of a* value

Po=Controlled (without vacuum)

P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.12 ANOVA of a* values

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 3 13.7984 2.66898 74561**
Error 8 0.0039 0.00021
Total 11 13.8022
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

52
 a* value
8

7
Mean values of a* value

0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.17 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of a* value

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

Table 4.13 Overall color analysis for tomato slices

Treatment ΔE Chroma WI
Po 0 11.3066 44.88
P1 2.9413 9.3430 47.25
P2 4.1951 8.5256 48.45
P3 5.1599 7.8846 49.30
P4 5.209 7.8017 49.41

53
 P5 6.2094 7.5592 50.43
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

4.4 Evaluation of quality parametrs for dried cauliflower slices

4.4.1 Rehydration capacity of cauliflower
Rehydration capacity is considered as quality index of damage to product caused by dehydration
and shows physical and chemical changes in the structure and in composition of cell tissues(Huang
and Zhang, 2015). Rehydration capacity is the ability of dried sample to absorb water. Rehydration
capacity is the measure of effectiveness of drying. High amount of water absorbed by dried sample
shows that high amount of water was removed from sample by drying and sample was dried upto

54
low water content. Higher the rehydration capacity, more will be the sample dried. Rehydration
capacity also measures degree of tissue damage by drying. Low value of rehydration capacity
shows that more tissues are damaged by drying because water can not be absorbed as pores of
tissues are closed due to tissue damage.
Mean values of rehydration capacity are shown in table. Mean values of rehydration capacity
shows that rehydration capicity decreases from treatment P1 to treatment P5. Mean value of
rehydration capacity for controlled treatment was 2.11. Mean value was highest for treatment P1
and lowest for treatment P5. Mean value of treatment P1 was 3.08 and for treatment P5 was 3.51..
Difference between mean value of controlled treatment and treatment P1 was observed to be 30%
and differnce between mean value of treatments P1 and P5 was 12%. Difference between mean
values of treatment P0 and P1 was due to the reason that vacuum was used in treatment P1 and not
used in the controlled treatment P0 due to which more tissues were damaged and mean value of
rehydration capacity was less than treatment P1. Difference between mean values of treatment P1
and P5 was due to application of more power of microwave oven in the treatment P1 and less in
treatment P5. Due to more power, rupture of cell tissues occur which cause tissue pores to close
and water absorbance process is slowed down.
My results match with(Jiang et al., 2011) who carried out microwave- vacuum drying at power
density of 2W/g.

Table 4.14 ANOVA rehydration capacity

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 5 2.4533 0.4908 4015**

Error 12 0.00147 0.00012

Total 17 2.4548
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

55
 4.5
Rehydration Capacity
4
Mean values of rehydration capacity

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.18 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of

rehydration capacity
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.15 ANOVA of rehydration capacity

Source DF SS MS F

Treatment 3 3.12180 1.04060 10406**

Error 8 0.00080 0.00080

Total 11 3.122260
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

56
 Rehydration Capacity
4.5

Mean values of rehydration capacity

4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels
Fig. 4.19 Graphical represention of vacuum degree effect on mean values of rehydration
capacity
Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)
V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

4.4.2 Volumetric shrinkage of cauliflower

Volumetric shrinkage shows loss of structure and cell damage and is described in terms of change
in volume of dried sample.It is an important parameter which directly affects quality of sample to
be dried. High shrinkage value indicates poor quality and low value shows good quality of sample.
Shrinkage also affects other parameters such as visual appearance and texture. So, the product with
higher shrinkage will have poor quality.
Mean values of shrinkage are shown in table. Mean values show that as power of microwave oven
is increased, voumetric shrinkage also increase. Effect of microwave power and vacuum on

57
percentage shrinkage value has been studied in this study. Mean value of percentage shrinkage for
controlled treatment is 15.050. Visual analysis throughout the drying process showed that
volumetric shrinkage is a non-homogeneous process. Heat passes from walls of surface to inner
part of samples independently, resulting in fast and high volumetric changes. As we know,
shrinkage also includes deformation of particle cells.
P1 showed highest mean value of shrinkage due to heating at highest power of 100W of microwave
oven and treatment P5 shows lowest mean value of shrinkage because of heating at lowest power
of 10W. Phis was due to the reason that due to increase in power, temperature of the sample
increases due to increase in sensible heat of the dried sample. At high drying rates at higher power,
more rupture of cell tissues occur. At high power, kinetic energy of molecules is more and the
molecules collide with each other at high speeds. Collision and random motion of molecules cause
damage to cell structure and therefore more shrinkage is observed at higher power. The Anova
table shows that microwave power significantly (P>0.05) influences Phe shrinkage value of the
dried sample.
Volumetric shrinkage relation is also directly proportional to the vacuum applied. While heating
cauliflower sample, creating vacuum inside the microwave oven can reduce time of processing. In
this way cauliflower dehydration energy can also be reduced and optimal target moisture can be
achieved efficiently. Mean values table for volumetric shrinkage is shown in table 4.17 which
shows Po has the lowest values of shrinkage, because there was no vacuum present during the
process. As P3 sample was dried but comparative to other treatments, result score minimum value.
Po showed best results because vacuum inside the drying box in microwave oven attains highest
values. Results during vacuum-microwave assisted are significant which proves that creating
vacuum during drying of cauliflower can dry faster but shrinkage of cauliflower results in
Table 4.16 ANOVA of volumetric shrinkage
Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 5 17.8076 3.56151 1960**
Error 12 0.0218 0.00182

Total 17 17.8294
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

58
 Volumetric Shrinkage
35
Mean values of volumetric shrinkage

30

25

20

15

10

0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.20 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of volumetric
shrinkage
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.17 ANOVA of shrinkage

Source DF SS MS F
Treatment 3 348.4857 116.162 191148**
Error 8 0.00076 0.0008
Total 11 348.4870
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

59
 %Volumetric Shrinkage

40
Mean values of volumetric shrinkage

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.21 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of volumetric
shrinkage

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

destruction of sample structure. So lower the values of vacuum created, lower will be the
volumetric shrinkage and vice versa.
4.4.3 Hardness of cauliflower
Hardness value represents hardness or softness of the sample which can be felt by hand touch.
Hardness affects quality and visual appearance of sample (Cui et al., 2008). High hardness value
indicates poor quality of the dried product. Texture of food can be hard , brittle or crunchyality.
Low hardness value represents good quality.Higher the hardness value, lower will be the quality
of sample. Mean value of hardness for controlled treatment was 7.53. Meam values increases from

60
controlled treatment and increases as we increases power from 10 to 100W at vacuum pressure of
23 inch of Hg which was kept constant. A probe was used to compress the extrudate for few
diameter crosshead. With the force in relation to distance, the compression generated a curve.
Highest score of force to distance was taken as a measurement of texture. Mean value of hardness
is highest for P1 treatment and was 6.03 while treatment P5 showed lowest value of hardness. The
reason behind this difference is that as we increase power of microwave oven thermal energy of
microwaves will also increase. This energy will evaporate more amount of water to the surface.
The second reason is that temperature will be more at higher power than lower power and due to
thermal gradient , water escape at higher rates. The rapid escape of water molecules will cause
more hardening of texture. As water escapes at higher rates tissues of sample become tight and
hard. Anova table shows that power of microwave oven significantly affects the hardness of
sample (P>0.05).
A probe was used to compress the cauliflower for few diameter crosshead. With the force in
relation to distance, the compression generated a long curve. Highes score of force to distance was
aken as a measurement of texture. Mean value of hardness is highest for P1 treatment and was
while treatment P5 showed lowest value of hardness. Structure of cauliflower is relatively hard,
Po the mean values were close to each other. Vacuum assisted drying help to dry sample faster as
compare to the only heating effect.

Table 4.18 ANOVA of hardness

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 5 19.17 3.94345 7170**

Error 12 0.0066 0.00055
Total 17 19.72
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

61
 Hardness
12

10

8
Hardness

0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.22 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of hardness

Po=Controlled (without vacuum)

P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.18 ANOVA of hardness

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 5 19.17 3.94345 7170**

Error 12 0.0066 0.00055
Total 17 19.72
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

62
 14 Hardness
12

10
Mean values of hardness

0
V0 V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.23 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of hardness

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

Table 4.19 ANOVA of L* value

Source DF SS MS F
Treatment 5 54.15 10.83 16382
Error 12 0.0079 0.0007
Total 17 54.16
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

63
 L* value
76

74
Mean values of L values

72

70

68

66

64
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.24 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of L* value
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.20 ANOVA of L* value

Source D.F SS MS F

64
 Treatment 5 11.36 2.27309 10229**
Error 12 0.0027 0.00022
Total 17 11.36
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

L* value
90

80

70
Mean values of L* value

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.25 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of L* value
Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)
V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

Table 4.21 ANOVA of a* value

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 3 5.36 2.27309 9239**

Error 8 0.0027 0.00015
Total 11 5.36
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

65
 a* value
0.5

0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Mean values of a* value

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5

-3

-3.5
Power levels

Fig. 4.26 Graphical representation of microwave power effect at mean values of a* value

Po=Controlled (without vacuum)

P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.21 ANOVA of a* value

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 3 5.36 2.27309 9239**

Error 8 0.0027 0.00015

66
 Total 11 5.36
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

a* value
0.5

0
Vo V1 V2 V3
-0.5

-1
Mean values of a* value

-1.5

-2

-2.5

-3

-3.5 Vacuum levels

Fig.4.27 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of a* value

Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)

V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

4.4.6 b* value cauliflower

b* value represents yellowness or blueness of sample (Bruijen et al., 2015). Higher the b* value,
higher will yellowness and lower the blueness and lower the b* value higher will be blueness and
lower will be yellowness. b* value ranges between -70 to +100, negative value shows blueness

67
and positive value indicates yellowness. Mean values of b* for different treatments are shown in
table. Mean value of controlled treatment was 9.022.
Mean value of b was highest for treatments P5 at microwave power of 10W, so indicates less
yellowness while mean value of b* was lowest for treatment P1 at microwave power of 100W
shows increase in yellowness. The difference between highest and lowest mean value of b is due
to difference in microwave power which was highest for treatment P1 and lowest for treatment P5.
ANOVA table shows that power of microwave oven affects significantly (P<0.05).

Table 4.22 ANOVA of b* value

Source D.F SS MS F
Treatment 5 21.46 4.29367 6225**
Error 12 0.0083 0.00069

68
 Total 17 21.47
**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

b* value
20
18
Mean values of b* value

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Po P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Power levels

Fig. 4.28 Graphical representation of microwave power effect on mean values of b* value
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Table 4.23 ANOVA of b* value

Source D.F SS MS F

Treatment 3 12.46 4.29367 3235**

69
 Error 8 0.0083 0.00042

Total 11 12.47

**=Highly significant(P>0.01)

b* value
20
18
16
Mean values of b* value

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Vo V1 V2 V3
Vacuum levels

Fig. 4.29 Graphical representation of vacuum degree effect on mean values of b* value
Vo=Controlled (without vacuum)
V1=15 inch of Hg, 100watt

V2=20 inch of Hg, 100watt

V3=25 inch of Hg, 100watt

Table 4.24 Overall color analysis for dried cauliflower

Treatment ΔE Chroma WI
Po 0 12.0248 65.8714

70
 P1 3.236 14.0706 66.9426
P2 4.3355 14.4952 67.7311
P3 5.9031 16.1476 67.6230
P4 7.0218 16.7088 68.2283
P5 7.8227 17.8264 68.5629
Po=Controlled (without vacuum)
P1=100watt, 25inch of Hg

P2=80watt, 25inch of Hg

P3=50watt, 25inch of Hg

P4=30watt, 25inch of Hg

P5=10watt, 25inch of Hg

Chapter 5 Summary
Large quantity of fruits and vegetables is lost in the right reason due to their perishable nature as
they contain large amount of water upto 80%. Small amount remain available for consumprtion
in off-season due to which shortfall occurs in off-season and sometimes we have to import fruits

71
and vegetables to fulfil our requirements. Drying is the cheapest method of preservation for fruits
and vegetables which lowers moisture content upto safe level due to which dried product can be
stored for long duration. To maintain original quality attributes like nutritional value, flavor,
taste,color and texture at reasonable prices is a key factor which determines goodness of fit of a
drying method. Different methods of drying are used like freeze drying, open sun drying,
microwave drying and hot air drying etc. These methods had different disadvantages like nutrient
loss, time consumption and high operational cost. Therefore it was needed to fabricate drying
technique which give quality of dried product acceptable to consumer at reasonable cost and which
require less time for drying.

Microwave-vacuum drying technique was better one because of its different advantages as better
quality of final product, less time consumption, high drying effeciency,easy process control and
less operational cost. Microwave drying technique is used widely for rapid heating but it has
disadvantage of burning the food sample especially in the final stage of drying. Microwave-
vacuum drying reduce the duration of falling rate drying period because of rapid removal of water
vapors and therefore burning risk of food product is minimized as less or no amount of water is
left behind for microwave heating. Burning risk is minimum also due to maintenace of low
temperature by reducing vapor pressure inside the drying chamber. Low temperature drying
environment also enables retention of nutrients and volatile aromatic components. Low vapor
pressure inside the drying chamber aids in the rapid removal of water vapors as less force is needed
by water vapors to escape and overcome atmospheric pressure.

All raw material for fabrication was purchased from local market of faisalabad and assembled at
Nutraceutical lab UAF. All raw material was food grade and safe for heating by microwaves.
Drying chamber was made of poly propylene which is safe for microwave heating and has good
mechanical resistance and dielectric loss factor. Home scale microwave oven was used for
microwave heating purpose holed at upper side to pass vacuum line. As vacuum pump pipe can
not move along the rotation of motor, Special rotary system was fabricated which had two shafts.
One shaft was stationary to attach vacuum supply pipe and other was rotating to rotate the drying
chamber. All the system including drying chamber and rotary system was maintained at air tight
condition. Microwave oven was operated at power ranging from 30 to 100watts and pressure inside
the chamber was maintained between 0 to 25inch of Hg.

72
The experiment was conducted for drying of tomato and cauliflower slices of thickness
approximately 3-5mm to study the effect of drying parametrs on quality of the dried sample.
Microwave oven power and vacuum degree were drying parameters and their effect was checked
on rehydration capacity, volumetric shrinkage, hardness and color. Specific energy vonsumption,
moisture ratio, drying and energy effeciency were calculated to obtain optimum drying conditions.
Statistical analysis was conducted for rehydration capacity, volumetric shrinkage, hardness and
color of the dried product. Results of this study showed that rehydration capacity, volumetric
shrinkage and hardness and color significantly depends on microwave power and vacuum degree.
Burning was less in samples dried at high vacuum degree.

Recommendations

 For low operational costs , a combination should be made as 70% hot air drying in the intial
stage and 30% microwave-vacuume drying in the final stage of drying as most of shrinkage
occur in final stage when less water is left
 For more minimization of burning, intermittent heating should be applied with different
on/off combinations
 Control panel should be fabricated which off the system as moisture contentent decrease
below critical limit so that drying could be achieved with desired moisture content
 Temperature sensor should be placed inside the drying chamber which give temperature
readings during drying
 Weight balance or scale should be attached with drying chamber which give weight reading
during drying as drying chamber is separated for weight measurement which add
uncertainity in drying calculations
 A condensor can be attached for collection of extracted vapors and system can be used for
extraction purpose alongwith drying
 Industrial scale microwave-vacuum dryer can be designed and fabricated by using these
calculations

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