Estudo da secagem da clara de ovo em camada de espuma (foam-mat drying).

Abstract

The egg in their entirety form or the white and the yolk present as essential ingredient in many food products by adding nutritional and functional properties. Drying is a successful way of conservation of eggs, whereas some advantages as to occupy less space ease of transport, good uniformity, easier to use and be stable microbiological quality. A considerable advantage in the foam-mat drying is its ability to maintain high product quality, presenting great opportunities for the food industry, besides the low temperature employed and reduced dehydration of time due to the larger area of contact with air. This work aims to study the drying kinetics in foam-mat drying the white of the farm eggs and capoeira (caipira) and to adjust the experimental data of the curves of dryness with the kinetic model obtained as Henderson and Pabis, Midilli and Kucuk , Page and a linear model. The study of the influence of the independent variables about dryness was made according to an experimental factorial plan complete 23 + 4 central points. The operational variables to be studied (input variables) were: thickness of the foam layer; shaking time of foam and drying temperature. And the dependent variables of the process (output variables) were drying time and final moisture content, protein content and brightness (color). It was made physicochemical characterization, and microscopic color of the powder obtained was performed. Egg whites to contain naturally foaming properties due to the high content and structure of its proteins showed satisfactory results regarding the physical characteristics of the foam. All experiments showed good reproducibility with curves represented by the characteristically constant rate and decreasing rate. For the adjustment of the data of the capoeira white data nonlinear models that best represent the experimental data were of Midilli and Kucuk and followed by Page linear model was used to fit the data until 150 minutes drying. The model of Midilli and Kucuk despite having the best coefficient of determination (R2) was not statistically significant. For the white of the farm linear model showed the best fit considering the maximum time of 130 minutes drying, followed by non-linear models and Midilli and Kucuk and the Page respectively. The process of drying the egg white froth layer method was satisfactory for the evaluated parameters, and the conditions tested did not influence significantly on important technological characteristics of the final product as the protein.