Otimização do processo de secagem osmótica na obten ção de produtos secos da manga Tommy Atkins

Tropical fruits like mango (Mangifera indica L.), one of the most popular fruits of the world, although very much appreciated, is highly perishable and seguire special techniques for its conservation and commercialization. This work had as objective to optimize the process of osmotic drying of mango and to study the effect of the temperature, sucrose concentration and time of immersion on the loss of water and gain in solid content. The influence of each variable and its interactions on the response were analyzed through analysis of variance (F-test and determination coefficient). It was verified that the three factors show significant effect on the loss of water and gain of mango solids, within the limits of the study. The optimum condition found for dehydration used as pretreatment for larger loss of water and smaller gain of solids was: temperature of 50 oC, concentration of 40% and immersion time of 90 min.