Improving Quality of Osmo-dehydrated and/or Dried Tropical Fruits

Dried fruits have high energy per serving and high content of dietary fibre, most of them contain vitamins and a wide range of phytochemicals, i.e. mango and pineapple. Combination of osmotic dehydration (OD) and drying can improve the product quality, which depends on the raw materials and conditions applied. The quality perception of dehydrated and/or dried fruit and their products (such as snack, breakfast cereals or confectionery-containing dried fruit) differs one another. The objectives of this project is to optimise the quality of dried tropical fruits in terms of their health, texture, flavour and colour quality aspects by studying the effect of different raw material parameters (i.e. type of fruit, maturity stage, and fruit matrix) and pre-treatment/reformulation (i.e. the use of polysaccharide-based coating and Calcium salt). The food chain approach will be applied in this research with emphasise on the first two steps of the chain which are raw materials and pre-treatment/reformulation. The hypothesis underlying this objective is that dried tropical fruits quality can be improved significantly by considering maturity stage of raw materials, processing conditions, applying appropriate pre- and drying treatment and understanding consumer’s demands and needs.

I will use many influencing factors and treatments of experimental research in this food quality and design-based project. One sub project of consumer studies will be performed in addition to one sensory study. The types of research data produced are experimental and observational data.