Modeling the electrical conductivity value of the model solution.

The ohmic heating process is one of the novel electrical heating methods that are considered as fast, homogeneous and efficient heating. In this study, the details of the relationship between electrical conductivity (EC)-Temperature (Temp) and EC-pH-Temp at different Total Soluble Solid Content (TSSC) and different pH values were examined. Especially, the study explains details of the electrical conductivity value due to pH change (2, 2.5, 3, 3.5) and expressing EC change depending on the pH value of fruit and vegetable juices. At constant pH, EC values decrease with increasing TSSC values (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%) and decrease with increasing pH at constant TSSC value. When the relationship between Temp-EC is analyzed that the EC value increases as Temp increases in all cases and this increase is linear. It was found that the Temp-EC relationship was in high compatibility with an R2 value above 0.97. Also, in the Temp-EC-pH relationship, the R2 value was found to be an acceptable value above 0.95.

Infrared drying of dill leaves: Drying characteristics, temperature distributions, performance analyses and colour changes.

Thin-layer drying behaviour of dill leaves samples under three different infrared radiation power intensities was investigated. Diffusion Approach was found to be the best model that describes the drying behaviour of dill leaves. Effective diffusivity values were 6.97 × 10-9, 6.84 × 10-9 and 8.96 × 10-9 m2/s for power intensities of 1790, 1970 and 2070 W/m2, respectively. According to the first and second law efficiencies, the infrared drying system was more efficient at higher power intensities (p < 0.05). However, the total colour change was maximum at the highest power intensity. For the investigated infrared drying conditions, 1970 W/m2 was recommended as the best-infrared power intensity applied for drying of dill leaves by taking into account both performance analyses and quality changes.

Quality characteristics of pomegranate juice concentrates produced by ohmic heating assisted vacuum evaporation.

BACKGROUND: Vacuum evaporation (VE) process is widely utilized in fruit juice evaporation to preserve quality attributes of final product. However, it has some disadvantages such as possible degradation of aroma components or volatile fatty acids due to long process time, and low energy efficiency of process. Pomegranate juice having 17.5% total soluble solid (TSS) content was evaporated to 40% TSS by ohmic heating assisted vacuum evaporation (OVE; 7.5, 10 and 12.5 V cm-1 ) and VE in the present study. The effects of the evaporation methods on pH, titratable acidity and colour values, antioxidant activity (AA), total monomeric anthocyanin (TMA), total phenolic content (TPC), hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and invert sugar content of pomegranate juice concentrates were compared. RESULTS: The colour properties, TMA, TPC and AA values of pomegranate juice concentrates evaporated by OVE were more influenced than those evaporated by VE. The degradation of sugars was minimized for OVE processes at high voltage gradients (10 and 12.5 V cm-1 ), and HMF content of pomegranate juice concentrated by OVE was lower than VE. CONCLUSION: It is thought that electrochemical reactions occurred because of the use of titanium electrodes during the OVE process caused these quality changes in pomegranate juice concentrates having high acidity. Hence, it was concluded that the utilization of relatively more electrochemically inert electrodes should be investigated in further studies to better evaluate the of influence of OVE method on quality attributes of different fruit juices. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.