LAJU PENGERINGAN WORTEL PADA BERBAGAI DENSITAS CURAH BAHAN DAN

Abstract

Carrots is a perishable foodstuff that need the post-harvest treatment. i.e. drying, to extend its shelf life. The drying rate is an important parameter that indicating the performance of drying process for various food materials. This study aimed to determine the drying rate of carrot in various bulk density of materials and microwave powers. The variation of bulk density of carrot (228, 271 and 613 kg/m3) obtained by grating it into three kind of particle sizes using a manual grater. These carrot samples then dried in a microwave power at levels 420, 537, and 723 W. For a comparison purpose, carrot with the same bulk density dehydrated in a hot-air oven at temperature of 60°C. The results showed that the use of higher power during drying process increased the drying rate of carrot. The highest drying rate value for any bulk density of carrot occured at power of 723 W. The drying rate of carrot for the bulk density of 228, 271 and 613 kg/m³ reached their highest values at 201.4, 216.1, and 198.8% db/min, respectively. It was expected that the hot-air drying rate of carrot was significantly lower than that using microwave oven. The highest drying rate of carrot in a hot-air oven was obtained between 3.6 and 4.5% db/min for the bulk density values from 228 to 613 kg/ m³