Use of Ultrasound for Dehydration of Papayas

This work evaluated the production of dehydrated papayas (Carica papaya L.) with low sugar content. The product was obtained applying ultrasonic waves to enhance the loss of sugar from the fruit. To achieve this goal, this paper examined the influence of the ultrasonic pre-treatment before air-drying on dehydration of papaya. Ultrasonic pre-treatment for air-drying of fruits was studied and compared with osmotic dehydration. This study allowed estimate of the effective diffusivity water in the air-drying process for papayas submitted to ultrasonic pretreatment. Results show that the water effective diffusivity increases after application of ultrasound causing a reduction of about 16% in the drying time. During ultrasonic treatment the papayas lost sugar (13.8% in 30 min), so such a pre-treatment stage can be a practical process to produce dried fruits with lower sugar content.