Analysis of mango drying methods and effect of blanching process based on energy consumption, drying time using multi-criteria decision-making

Fruits are considered one of the healthiest foods, but their high moisture content makes them perishable; they must be dried to improve shelf life. Given India's dominance in mango fruit production, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of drying conditions on mango physical properties, as well as for blanching pretreatment. Statistical analysis evaluates seven thin layer drying models for the drying kinetics analysis. The effect of blanching on drying kinetics is investigated at predetermined time intervals, along with the moisture ratio. For determining the fit quality of the proposed models, the coefficient of determination (R-2), Root Mean Square Error, and Sum of Squared Errors are used. Subsequently, five different drying methods (Open Sun Dryer, Controlled Solar Box Dryer, Hot Air Oven Dryer, Microwave Oven Dryer, and Electric Oven Dryer) are used to optimize the drying of mango samples using Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods. The Analytical Hierarchy Process, Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis and Complex Proportional Assessment methods, along with fuzzy sets, determine the best drying method with the lowest energy consumption, cost and drying time. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the results. It can be concluded that the mathematical models Page, Two-term, Diffusion, and Weibull provide a better fit to the experimental data than other models. Blanching affects on drying because it shortens the drying time. According to optimization results, the electric oven dryer and microwave oven dryer produced the best results and are regarded as the best drying methods for both controlled and blanched samples considering energy consumption, dryer cost, drying time.