Quality of dried carrot pomace powder as affected by pretreatments and methods of drying

Abstract

In order to develop dried carrot pomace of high quality, experiments were conducted in completely randomized design (CRD).  The carrot pomace was subjected to various blanching pretreatments i.e. water blanching (WB), steam blanching (SB), citric acid blanching (CB) and potassium metabisulphate (KMS) dipping after blanching (WBS).  A control sample (untreated, UT) was kept for comparison.  The samples were further dried by various drying methods i.e. convective drying (55°C and 65°C), sun drying and solar drying.  The 65°C convective dried samples witnessed minimum drying time with higher fiber, total carotenoids, β-carotene content and minimum change in color parameters.  Among the blanching pretreatments, the CB pretreatment showed better efficacy in retaining the quality attributes.  Overall, the CB pretreatment followed by convective drying at 65°C was found to be the best drying combination for retaining the quality attributes of carrot pomace.

Keywords: Carrot pomace, pretreatments, blanching, drying, physicochemical properties