Food Research International 63 (2014) 4248

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Food Research International

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres

Quality retention in strawberries dried by emerging

dehydration methods
Johannes de Bruijn a,b, Rodrigo Brquez c,
a
Department of Agroindustry, University of Concepcin, Avenida Vicente Mndez 595, Chilln, Chile
b
Centre for Agrotechnology Development, University of Concepcin, P.O. Box 3801061, Chilln, Chile
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Concepcin, P.O. Box 160-C, Concepcin, Chile

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study the effectiveness of drying methods vacuum microwave drying (VMD), hot air drying (AD), con-
Received 31 July 2013 vective air drying combined with vacuum microwave drying (AD-VMD) and osmotic dehydration followed by
Received in revised form 16 February 2014 vacuum microwave drying (OD-VMD) and their effects on both physicochemical and structural changes in
Accepted 26 March 2014
strawberries are compared. Drying performance was assessed by drying rate, moisture content and water activ-
Available online 4 April 2014
ity, while changes in quality attributes of strawberries were determined by measuring color, texture, microstruc-
Keywords:
ture, shrinkage and rehydration ratio. A maximum drying rate of 6.74 104 kg water/(kg dry matter s) was
Strawberry found for microwave-assisted drying, which results into a product of intermediate water activity. Combining
Osmotic dehydration VMD with osmotic dehydration or air drying did not improve drying efciency. VMD yields an elastic product
Convective drying of improved mechanical resistance with just a slight loss of color and an appropriate rehydration performance.
Microwave drying Preliminary dehydration using hot air or sucrose solution was not able to improve most of the quality attributes
Vacuum of strawberries.
Quality 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Drying of foods is particularly important for handling and distribu-
tion of raw materials with high moisture content and limited shelf-life
such as fruits and vegetables. The main objective of drying of food prod-
ucts is to remove free water to a level where microbial spoilage is re-
duced and where a shelf stable, less perishable product is ensured.
Fruits dehydrated by convective drying should have a moisture content
of 2025%, i.e. 0.33 kg water/kg dry matter to assume a prolonged shelf-
life (Piotrowski, Lenart, & Wardzyski, 2004).
In drying, applied external heat evaporates surface moisture, while
internal moisture may be forced to the surface and then evaporated.
Moisture can also be evaporated internally and then transported to
the surface. The transfer of heat depends on the air temperature, air hu-
midity, air ow rate, pressure, surface area, the physical nature of the
material as well as its composition and the process by which the heat
is transferred to the material be it by conduction, convection or by radi-
ation (Raghavan & Orsat, 2007). In addition, diffusion is the dominant
physical mechanism governing moisture movement in strawberry dry-
ing (Doymaz, 2008). Most conventional dryers operate at atmospheric
pressure under steady drying conditions using hot air as a drying
Corresponding author. Tel.: +56 412204534; fax: +56 412243750.
E-mail address: rborquez@udec.cl (R. Brquez).
medium and convection as the mode of heat transfer (Mujumdar &
Law, 2010). Besides, convective drying consists of passing heated air
through layers of products, such as apples, plums, herbs and vegetables
(Raghavan & Orsat, 2007). Convective drying has several limitations, e.g.
non-uniform product quality (Lewicki & Pawlak, 2003), long drying
times (Feng, Tang, Mattinson, & Fellman, 1999), case hardening of the
product surface (Kurozawa, Azoubel, Murr, & Park, 2012), signicant
change of color compared with the original product (Kurozawa et al.,
2012) and changes in physical, chemical and sensory attributes
(Wojdylo, Figiel, & Oszmiaski, 2009), which gives rise to low drying
performance and high operating costs. Other traditional methods of
drying are, although inexpensive, slow and unpredictable, or slow and
expensive. Therefore, emerging drying methods based on the potential
of microwaves have been studied to reduce drying time while preserv-
ing the quality for a number of food products (Orsat, Yang, Changrue, &
Raghavan, 2007; Raghavan & Orsat, 2007). Drying performance
(Brquez, Canales, & Redon, 2010; Sunjka, Rennie, Beaudry, &
Raghavan, 2004) and product quality (Changrue, Orsat, & Raghavan,
2008; Venkatachalapathy & Raghavan, 1999) can be further improved
by combining pretreatments such as osmotic dehydration or convective
drying, with microwave-convective or microwave-vacuum drying.
Strawberries (Fragaria ananassa) are one of the most delicate and
perishable fruits with a very high respiration rate, weight loss and sus-
ceptibility to fungal attack. Strawberries are highly valued due to their
sensory properties, particularly sweetness and aroma attributes being

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2014.03.029
0963-9969/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J. de Bruijn, R. Brquez / Food Research International 63 (2014) 4248
determinant for their quality (Azodanlou, Darbellay, Luisier, Villettaz, &
Amad, 2003). On the other hand, color is the key property governing
the initial acceptability of any food, while mechanical properties are
one of major interest in order to characterize the rst bite and micro-
structure of food. Therefore, the food industry is looking for new alter-
native, inexpensive preservation methods yielding minor alterations
in the main attributes of processed strawberry fruits.
The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of drying
methods vacuum microwave drying (VMD), hot air drying (AD), con-
vective air drying combined with vacuum microwave drying (AD-VMD)
and osmotic dehydration followed by vacuum microwave drying
(OD-VMD) for strawberries and to compare both physicochemical
and structural changes caused by these methods that would affect
nal product quality.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Samples
Fresh strawberries (Fragaria ananassa, cv. San Andreas), harvested in
2011 and 2012, were supplied by Agrofrutillas San Pedro S.A. (Melipilla,
RM, Chile). After removing unripe and damaged fruits, berries were se-
lected according to size and color. After removal of stem and sepals of
individual, unwashed strawberries, these were stored at 5 C for maxi-
mum 24 h.
Analyses of the composition of fresh strawberries were done in tripli-
cate according to the recommendations of AOAC (1998). Moisture
content of strawberries was determined by gravimetry using an oven
(Gallenkamp, hotbox oven, size one, UK) for 48 h at 70 C and an analyt-
ical electronic balance FA2104N with an accuracy of 0.0001 g (AOAC
20.013). Soluble solids were measured with a refractometer (Abbe
Atago N-1e, Japan) (AOAC 932.12). The pH of pured strawberries was
measured with a pH-meter (OAKTON, pH 510 series, Singapore) (AOAC
981.12). Diluted solution of pured strawberries was titrated with 0.01
N NaOH, using phenolphthalein as indicator, where titratable acidity
was expressed as weight percentage of citric acid in fresh sample
(AOAC 942.15). Strawberry samples were characterized by an initial
moisture content of 90.4 1.3% (w/w), soluble solids of 8.0 0.8 Brix,
pH of 3.56 0.11 and tritatable acidity of 0.85 0.13% (w/w).
2.2. Drying of strawberries
Drying experiments were performed at the maximum load of the
drying equipment. Strawberry samples were dried to a mean nal mois-
ture content of 28% wet basis. These samples were cooled to ambient
temperature, packed and stored at 5 C for evaluating water activity,
color, texture, structure and rehydration performance. Four drying tech-
niques were investigated in this study.
2.2.1. Air drying
In convective air drying (AD), 12.7 kg of strawberries was air dried at
70 C for 10 h in the Proctor-062 tray dryer (Proctor & Schwartz Corp.,
Philadelphia, PA, USA), using vertical air ow through six trays in a
closed circuit. The air velocity inside the drying cavity was kept constant
at 1.70 m/s with a relative humidity of air of about 5%. The sample was
weighed using an electronic balance (Gibertini, TMB25AR, Gibertini,
Italy) with an accuracy of 0.1 g. Weighing intervals of 5 min were
used during the rst hour of drying, 15 min for the second hour,
30 min for the third hour and then 1 h until the end of the process.
2.2.2. Vacuum microwave drying
Vacuum microwave drying (VMD) of strawberries was done using a
custom made, Airmax lab-scale microwave vacuum dryer (700 W,
2450 MHz) (Brquez et al., 2010). In the cavity of the microwave
oven, three static horizontally stapled acrylic trays (width: 1013 cm;
length: 17 cm) covered with adsorbent paper and supported by rear
43
and front acrylic disks (diameter: 14 cm) were used to distribute a
sample of maximum 250 g of strawberries. Individual berries were sep-
arated 1 cm from each other to allow individual drying. Trays were
completely covered by a vertical cylindrical container (diameter:
18 cm; length: 24 cm; thickness: 6 mm) made of black polyethylene,
which allows passage of microwaves. This container was adjusted to a
circular slot at the rear side of the oven for hermetical sealing during op-
eration, where sub-atmospheric pressure was provided by a vacuum
pump. Condenser with refrigeration liquid ( 10 C) and condensate
trap were connected in-line with the vacuum hose to remove moisture
from sub-atmospheric air before reaching the vacuum pump. Absolute
pressure was controlled by a manometer and maintained in the range
of 10 to 70 mm Hg by the vacuum pump and a vent for air inlet. Four
probes of optical ber (model TMI4, FISO Technologies Inc., Canada)
for temperature measurement were inserted in the center of different
berries. The vacuum microwave drying system operated for 3 h at a
temperature of 50 1 C, removing the excess of microwave heat by
recirculation of cold water between two polypropylene containers out-
side the vacuum chamber and by using an onoff temperature control
system for the magnetron after the rst 20 min after starting each ex-
periment. Then the microwave control system was switched off, but
the vacuum drying conditions were maintained for one extra hour.
2.2.3. Air dryingvacuum microwave drying
A heating oven with mechanical convection (Binder FD 53,
Tuttlingen, Germany) was used in the preliminary drying step using
an air temperature of 50 C and an air velocity of 1.0 m/s. The drying sys-
tem consisted of a horizontal airow through three trays arranged as a
closed circuit. For air heating, electrical resistances of 1200 W were
used and manually set into operation by a digital thermostat. A digital
hygro thermometer anemometer (Omega Engineering, Inc., model
HHF710, Stamford, CT, USA) was used to measure air temperature and
velocity. A sample of about 1.1 kg of fresh strawberries was weighed
using a semi-analytical balance with a resolution of 0.1 g. Weighing in-
tervals of 2 h were used for 48 h until the moisture content became
50% (w/w) followed by the vacuum microwave drying operation.
2.2.4. Osmotic dehydrationvacuum microwave drying
After applying a vacuum pulse (70 mm Hg absolute pressure for
10 min) at the beginning of the process, osmotic dehydration (OD)
was carried out at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature for
4 h. Five 80 g samples of strawberries were taken and mixed with a su-
crose solution of 60% (w/w) that was used as hypertonic solution, being
the ratio of solutionfruit (12.5:1 (v/w)) high enough to avoid signi-
cant changes in concentration of the solution over time. Mass transfer
was enhanced by shaking at 140 rpm (orbital shaker, Ilshin Lab. Co.
Ltd., South Korea). Afterwards, dehydrated strawberries (250 g) were
drained, rinsed with distilled water to remove the excess of sucrose so-
lution and the excess of external moisture was removed with adsorbent
paper. Then fruits were put on a previously weighed drying tray in order
to continue drying by using vacuum microwave heating (VMD).
2.3. Drying performance
In order to account for the performance of each drying method, the
drying rate was calculated from the amount of water removed by dehy-
dration per kilogram of dry matter per second of operating each dryer at
full load.
Drying rate W 0 W t =W d  t 1
where W0, W(t) and Wd are the initial weight of the sample, its weight
after dehydration and its dry mass, respectively, and t is the time inter-
val of dehydration.
The portable instrument ms1 Set aw (Novasina, Lachen, Switzerland)
was used to measure the water activity at 26 0.3 C of the following
44 J. de Bruijn, R. Brquez / Food Research International 63 (2014) 4248
strawberry samples: VMD (4 h), VMD (2 h), VMD (3 h) and raw material.
Prior to using the device, the instrument was calibrated using saturated
salt solutions of known relative humidity. Moisture content of strawber-
ry samples was determined in triplicate in the Gallenkamp hotbox oven
(OVB-300-010 N, Gallenkamp, London, UK) at 70 C until constant
weight (AOAC, 1998).
The Guggenheim, Anderson and de Boer (GAB) model (Eq. (2)) was
used to describe dry basis moisture content (X) as function of water ac-
tivity (aw):
X X 0 C K aw =1K aw 1 C1 K aw 2 by dipping the samples for 1 h in a solution of ethanol (67%) and ben-
where C and K are constants and X0 is the monolayer moisture content
on dry basis (kg/kg). Model parameters were estimated by direct non-
linear weighted regression analysis using the SPSS 15.0 software for
Windows. Fitting of the parameters was carried out by minimizing the
sum of the residual error. Regression procedure was started by using
the values reported by (Mosquera, Moraga, & Martnez-Navarrete,
2012) as initial values.
2.4. Quality evaluation
2.4.1. Color
Color of fresh and dehydrated strawberries was measured by means
of the degree of redness or greenness (a), the degree of yellowness or
blueness (b) and the degree of lightness (L), using the Color Quest II
Hunterlab colorimeter (Hunter Associates Laboratory, Inc., Reston, VA,
USA). This instrument was calibrated at the beginning of each experi-
ment with a white ceramic plate. Results were expressed in a, b and
L color coordinates of the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage
(CIE). Values of hue (h0), chrome (C) and difference of color to fresh
sample (E) were calculated from a, b and L values by the following
equations (Lozano, 2006):
0 1
h tan b  =a
q
 2  
C a b2
q Volume was calculated from the polar (dp), rst equatorial (de,1) and
 2 
E a b2 L2
where a = (af a0), b = (bf b0) and L = (Lf L0). The
subscripts 0 and f indicate fresh and dehydrated states, respectively.
Each strawberry was scanned at three different locations using ten fruits
per treatment.
2.4.2. Texture
Texture characteristics of strawberries were measured by the
Instron Universal Testing Machine (ID 4467 H 1998, Instron Co., Nor-
wood, MA, USA). At least ten replicates per treatment were carried
out. Compression tests were performed using a cylindrical plunger
with a diameter of 3.21 mm and a crosshead speed of 10 mm/min,
where the applied force was plotted against deformation. Texture was
evaluated in terms of maximum force to rupture (Fcrit) and Young's
modulus or apparent modulus of elasticity (E). The rupture point agrees
with the point in the forcedeformation curve at which the loaded spec-
imen shows visible or invisible failure in the form of breaks or cracks.
This point was detected by a continuous decrease of the load in the
forcedeformation diagram (ASAE, 1998). Apparent modulus of elastic-
ity was calculated from the forcedeformation data before rupture and
geometry data of plunger and each specimen, considering loading of a
spherical indenter on a curved surface and assuming a Poisson's ratio
of 0.42 for strawberries (Arnold & Mohsenin, 1971; ASAE, 1998).
2.4.3. Microstructure
Structural features of parenchyma tissue were examined after pre-
paring strawberry sections according to Sass (1951). Radial fruit sec-
tions were cut from mid-way between the epidermis and the core of
similar sized berries in cubes of approximately 1 cm. Four cubes were
randomly chosen for microscopic examination. Samples were xed in
an aqueous solution of formaldehyde (3.8% v/v), acetic acid (5.0% v/v)
and ethanol (48% v/v) for at least ve days. Samples were dehydrated
by immersion in ethanol solutions (50%, 60%, 70% and 80%) for 2 h,
followed by immersion in ethanol (96%) for 12 h. Washing was done
zene (33%), for 3 h in a solution of ethanol (50%) and benzene (50%),
for 1 h in a solution of ethanol (67%) and benzene (33%), for 0.5 h and
10 min in pure benzene. Dehydration was completed by three-fold im-
mersion of the cubes in a solution of benzene (50%) and parafn (50%)
for 2 h, followed by immersion in pure parafn for 12 h at 60 C in order
to vaporize solvent from the samples. Dehydrated material was xed
and saturated with liquid parafn. After polymerization samples were
cut by a rotary Minot microtome into 12 m thick slices. These slices
were rst xed by glycerinated albumin in a droplet of water. Samples
were dried at 40 C for 12 h in order to remove residual water. Fixation
stage was nished by the immersion of samples in pure dimethyl-
benzene and in a solution of dimethyl-benzene (50%) and ethanol
(50%) for 10 min and in ethanol solutions (96%, 80% and 60%) for
5 min. Slices were stained with alcoholic safranin for 2 d and washed
with water. Then an alcoholic picric acid solution was applied for 20 s
in order to enhance the differentiation between microstructures of
strawberry tissue, followed by the neutralization with alcoholic ammo-
nia solution and by two-fold hydration with pure ethanol for 10 min.
Microscopic examinations were done using the Zeiss Axiostar Plus mi-
croscope (Carl Zeiss Microscopy, Oberkochen, Germany) with a digital
camera (Cannon PowerShot A620, 7.1 MP) connected to a computer
with an image analysis program (ZoomBrowser Ex 5.5).
2.4.4. Shrinkage
3 Shrinkage of strawberries was expressed in terms of the ratio of the
difference between initial (V0) and nal volumes (Vf) per initial volume:
 
4 S V 0 V f =V 0  100% 6
5 second equatorial (de,2) diameters according to the following function:
V 1=3   0:5  de;1  0:5  de;2  dp 7
Diameters were measured using a digital Vernier caliper (Caliper,
150 0.05 mm, Stanford professional) with an accuracy of 0.01 mm.
Each value was the average of ten measurements.
2.4.5. Rehydration
Rehydration of strawberry samples was done in a thermally isolated
container lled with about 5 L of distilled water. The temperature of
water inside the container was set at 20 C. Strawberry samples
(100 g) were put in two plastic tied up sieves and immersed for 12 h.
After rehydration samples were shaken twice to drain attached water
and weighed afterwards, using the Shimadzu BL320H (Shimadzu Co.,
Tokyo, Japan) electronic balance. In order to account for rehydration
performance, the rehydration coefcient was dened as the ratio be-
tween the amounts of water absorbed after rehydration to the amounts
of water removed by dehydration (Meda & Ratti, 2005):
RC W r W d =W 0 W d  100% 8
where Wr, Wd and W0 are the weight of the sample after rehydration, its
weight after dehydration and before rehydration, and its initial weight,
respectively.
 J. de Bruijn, R. Brquez / Food Research International 63 (2014) 4248
Fig. 1. Drying rates of strawberries dried by different methods. AD: convective air drying;
VMD: vacuum microwave drying; AD-VMD: air drying and vacuum microwave drying;
OD-VMD: osmotic dehydration and vacuum microwave drying. Bars with different super-
script letters were signicantly different (P b 0.05).
2.5. Statistical analyses
Analysis of variance was performed to assess statistically signicant
differences between dehydration treatments for the quality attributes of
strawberries at a condence level of 95% (p b 0.05) using Statgraphics
Centurion XVI version 16.1.15 (Statpoint Technologies, Inc., Warrenton,
VA, USA). Differences on the mean values were assessed by Duncan's
multiple range test at a signicance level of p b 0.05 to discriminate
among the means using the Fisher's least signicant difference
procedure.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Drying performance
The drying rate for dehydrated strawberry samples is shown in
Fig. 1. It is evident that water removal from fruit is dependent on the
drying method. The drying rate for hot air drying was found to be
6.0 104 kg water/(kg dry matter s). This value agrees with the max-
imum drying rate for convective drying of strawberries at 65 C as re-
ported by Doymaz (2008), where the drying rate decreased with
moisture content. The drying rate determined for microwave assisted
drying was about 12% higher than the convective air drying rate
(Fig. 1). Microwave treatment results into internal water heating and
evaporation due to ionic conduction and dipolar rotation of charged
and dipolar species, respectively (Schiffmann, 1995). Evaporation that
occurs inside the product creates additional partial pressure and con-
centration gradients (Contreras, Martn-Esparza, Chiralt, & Martnez-
Navarrete, 2008). Both ordinary concentration diffusion and pressure
Table 1
Physicochemical properties of fresh and dehydrated strawberry samplesa.
Parameter Sample
RM AD
a c
Acidity (%) 0.85 0.13
pH 3.56 0.11b
Soluble solids 7.99 0.82a
(Brix) Moisture (kg H2O/kg DM) 9.45 0.01d 0.379 0.000b
RM, raw material; AD, air drying; VMD, vacuum microwave drying; AD-VMD, air drying and vacuum microwave drying; OD-VMD, osmotic dehydration and vacuum microwave drying.
a
Different letters in the same row indicate statistically signicant difference (p b 0.05).
45
diffusion act as additional driving forces to enhance mass ux of water
and thus the effective water diffusion rate during microwave-assisted
drying (Bird, Stewart, & Lightfoot, 1960). Thus microwave application
is able to reduce the drying time of strawberries. Although the moisture
content decreased from 90% (wet basis) to 75% (wet basis) after osmotic
pretreatment, the drying rate decreased signicantly compared to VMD
without osmotic pretreatment. Decrease of the dielectric constant after
osmotic pretreatment yields a reduced absorption of microwave energy
by the product (Changrue et al., 2008). Due to less microwave coupling
with the osmotically treated product, the time taken to remove mois-
ture increased, therefore reducing drying rate (Fig. 1). Strawberry freez-
ing previously to microwave-convective drying at 55 C and 1.7 W/g
with or without osmotic dehydration was able to increase maximum
drying rates by approximately ten times (Piotrowski et al., 2004) com-
pared to data of our study. Freezing of raw material seems to affect
the structure of plant tissue enhancing drying performance. However,
no information has been provided about the impact of microwave appli-
cation on the structural changes and mechanical properties of these
fruits. Combined treatment of VMD with osmotic dehydration or air
drying is able to reduce the moisture content of dehydrated straw-
berries further on (Table 1), but this improvement is coupled to lower
drying rates (Fig. 1). At the advance of drying, moisture gradients within
the product are smoothen down, which hinders moisture transport by
diffusion out of the product and thus decreasing drying rates.
Table 1 shows the results of physicochemical analyses done to the
strawberry samples. High moisture content (90.43 1.30 g water/
100 g product) of fresh fruit is related to high water activity (aw =
0.92). Soluble solids, amongst others organic acids, were concentrated
after water removal reducing water activity down to between 0.70
and 0.80. This intermediate water activity yields into dry, rm and ex-
ible products without growth of most of the bacteria, yeast and molds
(Rahman, 1995). The water sorption isotherm of strawberries after
VMD dehydration is shown in Fig. 2. The rst part of the isotherm rep-
resents the monolayer of water molecules strongly bound to the prima-
ry adsorption sites by high energy hydrogen bonds. The second part of
the isotherm, which is almost linear and falls approximately between
aw of 0.2 and 0.7, corresponds to the binding of several layers of water
molecules superimposed on each other, attached by hydrogen bonds
of decreasing energies. The third part of the isotherm for aw greater
than 0.7 represents water retained in micropores by capillarity
(Shatadal & Jayas, 1992). As can be observed, sorption data of water ac-
tivity and equilibrium moisture content were well tted by the GAB
model with a mean relative error of 0.76%. In our study, the monolayer
moisture content X0 was 0.075 g water/g solids. This value was close
to that reported by other authors for freeze-dried straw berries
(Mosquera, Moraga, & Martnez-Navarrete, 2012; Rahman, 1995). The
value of the monolayer moisture content is of particular interest, since
it indicates the amount of water that is strongly adsorbed to specic
sites of the food surface, which may be related to food stability. The
value of constant K of the GAB model was 1.078, near to 1, demonstrat-
ing multilayer properties similar to bulk liquid water for the dehydrated
strawberry samples. The value of the C constant was 17.45, which sug-
gests a difference of sorption enthalpy or energy of interaction between
VMD AD-VMD OD-VMD
b
17.00 2.30 13.71 1.12
3.31 0.01a 3.42 0.02a
22.00 2.00b 29.33 2.08c
0.580 0.005c 0.297 0.001a 0.395 0.081b
46 J. de Bruijn, R. Brquez / Food Research International 63 (2014) 4248

10
luminosity for OD-VMD provoked by the substitution of air by the im-
9
pregnation solution after applying the vacuum pulse, followed by the
8 Experimental GAB model contraction and deformation of intercellular spaces (Moreno et al.,
X (kg water / kg DM)

7 2012). On the other hand, least color change after applying osmotic pre-
6 treatment to strawberries as reported by Changrue et al. (2008) was
5
due to their lack of temperature control during VMD, where osmotic
pretreatment resulted into a decrease of the dielectric constant for this
4
kind of strawberries. Differences between experimental conditions of
3
microwave drying make it difcult to compare literature data.
2 Strawberry drying by using hot air of 70 C promoted the loss of me-
1 chanical resistance of the samples (Table 2). Vacuum microwave-
0 assisted dehydrated samples, with or without air pretreatment at
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 50 C, yielded the highest rupture point values in the loaded species
aw (Table 2). The rmness of plant-derived material depends on cell turgor.
The decrease in rmness resulted from changes in cell wall structure,
Fig. 2. Water sorption isotherm of VMD treated strawberry at 26 C. Comparison of exper- losses of hydrostatic pressure within the cells and tissue damage caused
imental () and predicted (full line) data according to the GAB model.
by thermal processing at 70 C (Fig. 3). Structure disruption and folding
surfaces could be observed in micrograph c. Similar results were report-
ed for thermal processing of strawberries at 70 and 95 C with a de-
crease of 90% of rmness (Fraeye et al., 2009; Fraeye et al., 2010). On
monolayer and multilayer molecules at the sorption sites. The values of the other hand, mechanical resistance of strawberries dehydrated by
the parameters of the GAB model for VMD strawberries were close to vacuum microwave heating with osmotic pretreatment decreased by
those of freeze-dried strawberries (X0: 0.102 g water/g solids; K: 1.01; 60% compared with strawberries without pretreatment (Table 2). Ac-
C: 18.81) (Mosquera et al., 2012). This suggests that both vacuum mi- cording to micrographs b and d, tissue structures of both samples
crowave drying and freeze-drying modify the internal and porous were rather similar despite osmotic pretreatment. Dehydrated straw-
structures, including capillaries of strawberry tissue in a similar way. berries show some loss of cell turgor compared with fresh fruit
(Fig. 3a). However, in osmotic dehydration sucrose passes through the
3.2. Quality retention cell wall and accumulates between the cell wall and the cell membrane,
where this hypertonic solution leads to a ux of water through the cell
Only minor color difference could be observed between vacuum mi- membrane, and as a consequence some shrinkage and loss of the integ-
crowave dehydrated strawberries and untreated fruit (Table 2). This rity of cell structure due to plasmolysis (Delgado & Rubiolo, 2005).
color change was mainly due to the differences in chrome properties, Minor ultrastructural differences might explain the lower mechanical
where no statistically signicant differences between raw material resistance of VMD samples with osmotic pretreatment. Furthermore,
and VMD samples were found for hue and lightness. Color changes the high Young's modulus of air pretreated microwave-assisted
due to the loss of chrome may be attributed to thermal degradation of dehydrated strawberries found in this study (Table 2) represents a
anthocyanins during strawberry dehydration (Contreras et al., 2008). less chewy product and seems to be related to the low moisture content
Anthocyanins were more sensitive to dehydration than polyphenols of this sample. Elastic behavior of the tested fruit species depends upon
(Mejia-Meza et al., 2010). Osmotic and air treatment previous to VMD the moisture content and dehydration method applied.
did not provide a better quality of strawberries in terms of color reten- Internal vaporization of water during vacuum microwave heating
tion. Air-dried samples had the lowest chrome, indicating less satura- yields a more open structure and lower shrinkage degree as the result
tion and a pale appearance that is contrary to the vivid color of fresh of vapor expansion within the product. The more open, spongy struc-
strawberries. Air pretreated strawberries were more yellow and less ture of vacuum microwave heated strawberries improves the accessibil-
red compared with other samples as evidenced by the higher hue ity and effective water diffusivity during rehydration, which results into
value (Table 2). Anthocyanins are relatively more labile due to oxidation better rehydration performance except for fruits that received osmotic
reactions that occur with air drying (Leusink, Kitts, Yaghmaee, & pretreatment (Table 2). Sucrose leaching during the rehydration opera-
Durance, 2010). Moreover, there was a signicant reduction of tion may explain worse rehydration performance of OD-VMD samples.

Table 2
Quality attributes of fresh and dehydrated strawberry samplesa.

Parameter Sample

RM AD VMD AD-VMD OD-VMD

Color
h 28.65 0.93a 31.79 5.27a 28.98 0.57a 42.14 6.37b 29.09 2.82a
L 25.15 0.78bc 24.60 2.44bc 22.75 2.52b 26.45 2.48c 19.70 4.91a
C 31.81 1.30d 19.80 1.55a 28.89 1.15c 20.59 2.07a 23.47 2.79b
E 12.53 2.71b 5.76 1.20a 13.00 2.67b 10.54 4.18b
Texture Fcrit (N) 1.12 0.06a 0.72 0.16ab 8.74 3.95b 48.30 13.69c 3.48 2.56ab
E (MPa) 0.33 0.03a 0.05 0.04a 0.04 0.01a 8.46 4.04b 0.02 0.01a
Shrinkage 72.33 5.86b 52.98 16.77a 61.88 18.46ab 63.36 10.83ab
S (%)
Rehydration 6.55 0.01a 15.47 4.05b 22.04 7.39b 3.45 0.00a
RC (%)

RM, raw material; AD, air drying; VMD, vacuum microwave drying; AD-VMD, air drying and vacuum microwave drying; OD-VMD, osmotic dehydration and vacuum microwave drying.
a
Different letters in the same row indicate statistically signicant difference (p b 0.05).
 J. de Bruijn, R. Brquez / Food Research International 63 (2014) 4248
Fig. 3. Micrographs of parenchymous tissue of strawberry samples dehydrated at different operating conditions: a) raw material; b) vacuum microwave dehydration; c) hot air drying; d)
vacuum microwave dehydration with osmotic pretreatment.
4. Conclusions
Dehydration of strawberries by microwave-assisted heating under
vacuum conditions was able to create the highest water ux out of the
product. This drying method results into an elastic product of improved
mechanical resistance, showing only a slight loss of color and an appro-
priate rehydration performance. Preliminary dehydration techniques
making use of hot air or sucrose solution did not improve most of the
quality attributes, neither the drying rate of strawberries. The tempera-
ture of the drying process was a critical factor that affected the quality of
microwave dried strawberries in terms of rehydration, color, shrinkage
and microstructure.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mr. Rubn Arce from Agrofrutillas
San Pedro S.A. for providing the strawberry samples, as well as
Mr. Pedro Meln, Dr. Mara Eugenia Gonzlez, Mrs. Cristina Loyola,
Mr. Juan Prez and Mr. Fernando Rivas for their technical assistance.
CONICYT is also acknowledged for nancial support by the FONDECYT
grant no. 1110097.
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