STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF VEGETABLES DURING AIR DRYING

The effect of moisture content on structural properties such as apparent density, true density and porosity was investigated in this work for various vegetables after conventional drying. Samples of twelve different fresh vegetables (mushroom, green pepper, courgete, spinach, celery, leek, onion, tomato, garlic, carrot, pea, and corn) were dehydrated with conventional drying and the aforementioned properties were experimentally determined. A simple mathematical model was selected to correlate the obtained experimental data of true density, apparent density and porosity to material moisture content for each vegetable. The correlation results for the studied properties of the examined vegetables are presented in this article, along with the obtained model parameters.