Combined drying technologies for development of high-quality shelf-stable mango products

In this work, different combinations of osmotic dehydration followed by microwave-assisted hot air drying were studied for modeling and quality evaluation purposes. The results revealed that the two variables that most affected drying time of mango were the level of microwave power and osmotic dehydration time, rather than airflow velocity and temperature, which did not have an important influence until the final stage of drying. The results also revealed a nonuniform distribution of microwaves inside the dryer cavity that provoked the charring of pieces situated in a specific zone but an acceptable preservation of mango color after drying.