Descrição da cinética de secagem da cenoura (Daucus carota L.) através de modelos empíricos.

Abstract

The carrot (Daucus carota L.) is a tuberous root belonging to the family Apliaceae. This vegetable has an important nutritional value, since it has in its composition, several components responsible for maintaining the good balance of the body (potassium, magnesium, copper, calcium and phosphorus), as well as B vitamins, which are important for the regulation of nervous system and digestive system. As the carrot is a vegetable known to have high moisture content, therefore, its useful life becomes short. Faced with this, drying becomes a procedure to increase your shelf life. In this perspective, the aim of this work was to evaluate the carrot drying process through empirical models and to determine the drying curves of the carrot at the temperatures studied. In this perspective, the aim of this work was to evaluate the carrot drying process through empirical models and to determine the drying curves of the carrot at the temperatures studied. In this methodology, the temperatures of 40, 50 and 70 C. It was possible to observe, through the results, that the equations of Page and Silva et alii were the best that t the experimental data, and they were used to obtain the drying rate. In the study of the drying rates, it was observed the existence of an induction period for all temperatures studied. The end of these periods and the beginning of the period of decreasing rate occurred near 40 min (at 40 C), 36 min (at 50 C) and 30 min (at 70 C). Therefore, with increasing temperature, the induction period tends to decrease.