Effect of sample geometry on moisture diffusivity and quality of dried plant-based food materials

The shelf life of food materials can be extended by removing water through heat and mass transfer phenomena which is known as drying. Along with taking immense energy, food quality deteriorates significantly throughout drying. Literature depicts that both drying conditions, as well as food properties, affect the degree of quality degradation. Although extensive research has been carried out on the effect of drying conditions on drying kinetics and quality, minimal study exists which adequately covers the effect of sample compactness on mentioned consequences. To attain a correlation between sample geometry and quality aspect, three typical shapes with constant volume of selected food materials have been investigated in this study. The colors and aesthetic appearance are also viewed in this experiment. With the variation of sample geometry, the overall food quality during drying of Brinjal, Carrot, and Radish varies significantly. Minimum quality deterioration was occurred for sliced samples of selected food materials; whereas, cylindrical-shaped samples deteriorate significantly higher than other samples. It can be concluded that sample compactness remarkably affects food quality and energy consumptions.