Mechanical processing and temperature effect on lime shrinkage

Abstract

Low shrinkage is an important parameter in marketing of dried lime fruits.  An experiment conducted in order to evaluate affective factors on shrinkage coefficient of a dried lime fruit.  Factors are defined as position of rest (vertical and horizontal), mechanical processing (length needling, width needling, slotting and intact or no processing), and temperature (shadow dried, sun dried, 40^oC, 105^oC and 200^oC).  Measured characters on a fruit were initial volume, final volume, and shrinkage coefficient.  The average initial moisture content of limes was 476 % kg (kg db)^-1.  The position factor had no significant effect on shrinkage coefficient, but mechanical processing and temperature affected the final volume and consequently the shrinkage coefficient of samples.  Also different influence of temperature in various mechanical processing was observed.  The best treatment was drying in 40^oC and with width needling because low shrinkage was obtained moreover nutritive value of fruits can be conserved with low energy consuming.

Keywords: Lime, shrinkage, drying, mechanical processing and temperature