Effects of pretreatments and drying air temperature on drying behaviour of peach slice

Summary In this study, the effect of pretreatments (potassium meta bisulphite and ascorbic acid) and drying air temperature (55 and 65 °C) on drying behaviour of peach slices were investigated. The peach slices were dried in a cross-flow tunnel dryer. Drying of peach occurred in falling rate period. Pretreated samples had higher drying rate. To select a suitable drying curve, six thin-layer drying models were fitted to the experimental data. The logarithmic model best described the drying behaviour of peach slices with high correlation coefficient values. The effective moisture diffusivity of treated samples was higher than the untreated samples.