Influence of temperature and geometry on peach drying kinetics

The peach (Prunus pérsica) much appreciated worldwide due to its organoleptic characteristics, being a highly perishable fruit must be processed quickly after harvest. An alternative well-known for preserving food and little explored in peach fruit is dehydration. This study aimed to compare the peach dehydration kinetics using two variables: temperature and geometry of the fruit. The geometry was used, whole fruit, fruit in two parts in shell, resulting in two shelled, resulting in 4 parts with bark and fruit into 4 parts shelled, totaling 80 samples with 4 replicates for each combination of the experiment, drying It was held in the 60°C temperature ranges, 70°C, 80°C and 90°C. After a period of 24 hours in an oven, it is noted that the higher the temperature the greater the rate of dehydration of the samples and the lower the moisture content of the final therebetween. Since the geometry, as is the fragmented fruit was higher dewatering rate, however, it is found that the fruit peel influence over the water outlet of the employed fraction.