Osmotic Dehydration of Toddy Fruit Cubes in Sugar Solution Using Response Surface Methodology

The response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the effects of immersion time (60, 90 and 120 min), temperature (35, 45 and 55°C) and concentration of sucrose solution (30, 40 and 50°Brix) in osmotic dehydration of toddy fruit tubes (1cm3). Box-Behnken Design was used with water loss (WL, %), solid gain (SG, %), and weight reduction (WR, %) as responses. The models obtained for all the responses were significant (P≤0.05) without a significant lack of fit. The optimum conditions were temperature (45°C), immersion time (120min), concentration of sucrose solution (40°Brix) in order to obtain WL of (33.867g/100g initial sample), SG of (4.478g/100g initial sample) and WR of 29.39 g/100g initial sample, respectively.