APPLICATION OF PELEG MODEL TO STUDY EFFECT OF WATER TEMPERATURE AND STORAGE TIME ON REHYDRATION KINETICS OF AIR DRIED POTATO CUBES

Potato cubes (1 x 1 x 1 cm) were dried at 65 degrees C in hot air oven. Samples were rehydrated by immersion in water during different periods of time and temperatures (23+/-2 degrees C and 100+/-2 degrees C). Rehydration kinetic was monitored by measuring samples' weights at regular in All measurements were repeated after two months to study effect of shelf life on rehydration. Peleg's model was successfully applied to experimental data and the corresponding parameters were obtained and correlated with temperature. The parameters of the model were found to be greatly affected by the water temperature during rehydration. Rehydration of samples was also dependent to water temperature. In particular, temperature increase led to higher. final moisture contents in the samples alter two months storage. On the other hand, higher temperatures decreased the moisture content of the samples at the end of first month which could be related to the structural changes in potato due to higher temperatures.