Hot air convective dehydration characteristics of Daucus carota var. Nantes

The present work focuses on experimental and theoretical study of air dehydration kinetics of Daucus carota var. Nantes in laboratory scale drying chamber. Steam blanching as a pretreatment was applied prior to dehydration of shreds and the results indicated a gradual decrease in drying time from 2.9 to 5.5% in temperature range of 50–70°C, for steam blanched samples in comparison to untreated carrots. Four different mathematical drying models (Newton, Page, Modified Page and Henderson and Pabis) were evaluated for goodness of fit by comparing their respective R2, χ2, and RMSE parameters. Comparison of the statistical parameters led to conclusion that Page model showed a better quality of fit and presents dehydration characteristics in better way to obtain drying curves than any other model.