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Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528

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Mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of apples

A. Derossi a,*, T. De Pilli a, C. Severini a, M.J. McCarthy b
a
Department of Food Science, University of Foggia, Via Napoli 25, 71100 Foggia, Italy
b
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, 95616-8598 Davis, CA, USA

Received 11 June 2007; received in revised form 31 October 2007; accepted 5 November 2007
Available online 21 November 2007

Abstract

Osmotic dehydration processes are widely applied to obtain high quality intermediate moisture food. The study of dehydration kinetics
and mass transfer mechanisms is very important for understanding and controlling the osmotic dehydration process. The internal changes
and kinetics of both moisture change and mobility during osmotic dehydration of apples is reported. The effective diffusion coefficient of
water was not constant during the dehydration treatment. Initially the effective diffusion coefficient calculated using a Fickian-based model
was 2 * 1010 m2/s and increased to 5 * 1010 m2/s during treatment. Moreover, results showed the existence of an osmotic dehydration
front that moves from the surface to the core of apple samples. It was not possible to explain the osmotic treatment process using only
diffusion-based mechanisms. All layers of cells appear to be involved in the moisture transport process at the same time.
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Osmotic dehydration; MRI; Mobility water; Structural changes

1. Introduction tion period on mass transfer of Gala apples. They showed

Osmotic dehydration is widely used to remove water
from fruits and vegetables by immersion in aqueous solu-
tion of sugars and/or salts at high concentration. This pro-
cess is usually used to partially remove water from
vegetable tissues obtaining stabilization without acidificat-
ion or pasteurization treatments. Moreover, osmotic dehy-
dration is used as a pre-treatment prior to freezing, freeze
drying, vacuum drying and air drying (Ponting, 1973;
Hawkes and Flink, 1978; Dixon and Jen, 1977; Nanjun-
daswamy et al., 1978). The effects of process variables such
as temperature, solution concentration, the type of osmotic
agent, size and shape, the rate of agitation, solid–solution
mass fraction and level of vacuum on water loss and solid
gain of food have been reported (Dixon and Jen, 1977;
Giangiacomo et al., 1987; Lerici et al., 1985). For instance,
Paes et al. (2007) studied the effect of vacuum and relaxa-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0881 589235; fax: +39 0881 589222.
E-mail address: a.derossi@unifg.it (A. Derossi).
that applying a short time vacuum impregnation the dehy-
dration did not occur when an osmotic solution concentra-
tion below 40°Bx was used. On the contrary solid gain
occured also with hypotonic solution (5°Bx) because
HDM mechanism controls the impregnation process.
Moreover the authors showed that it is possible to modu-
late vacuum and relaxation time with the aim to obtain
high solid gain or water loss from the apple tissue.
In experiments carried out by Marcotte and Le Maguer
(1991a) potato slices soaked in 40% of sucrose did shrink
by 5–40%. A high level of dehydration is achieved by using
an osmotic agent with a high molecular weight and a high
solution concentration. In a candying process a low molec-
ular weight osmotic agent at a low concentration is used to
obtain a high solid gain (Rastogi et al., 2002). Mavroudis
et al. (1998) studied the effects of solution agitation and
structural difference of apples on osmotic dehydration pro-
cess and they showed that water loss was higher if the
osmotic solution was in the turbulent regime rather than
in laminar flow. The driving force for removal of water
from the tissues to the solution is the difference in osmotic

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.11.007
520 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528
Nomenclature
w0 moisture content of raw material (g/g dry basis)
wt moisture content at time t (g/g dry basis)
wt0 weight of raw material (g/g dry basis)
wti weight at time t (g/g dry basis)
m moisture content (g/g dry basis)
s solid content (g/g dry basis)
Dew effective diffusion coefficient for water (m2 s1)
Des effective diffusion coefficient for solid (m2 s1)
WL water loss (g/g dry basis)
WR weight reduction (g/g dry basis)
SG solid gain (g/g dry basis)
l half height of apple samples (m)
r radius of apple samples (m)
t the immersion time (s)
pressure between tissues and the hypertonic solution.
Nevertheless, due to the open structure of apple tissues
and since the cellular membranes are not completely semi-
permeable, different materials such as solutes from the
solution to fruit tissues and solutes from the vegetables to
solution migrate in addition to water. Structural changes
in tissues occur simultaneously to the moisture transport.
The first few layers of cells are usually assumed to die in
response to damage that occurs at the microscopic and
macroscopic levels during dehydration (Mavroudis et al.,
2004; Ferrando and Spiess, 2001).
Alzamora et al. (1997) showed that osmotic dehydration
of strawberry results in lysis of plasmalemma, tonoplast
and middle lamella membranes. Due to water loss, protein
denaturation takes place resulting in damaged membranes
(Salisbury and Ross, 1997). This damage to the cell wall
and cell membranes leads to decreased viability and even-
tually cell death (Ferrando and Spiess, 2001). However,
cells death does not always occur; Lewicki and Porzecka-
Pawlak (2005) showed that osmotic dewatering caused
changes in the size and shape of apple cells but the effects
were not enough to break cell walls or to split middle
lamella.
The mechanisms of moisture transport during osmotic
dehydration of fruit and vegetable tissues are not com-
pletely understood. Three most important pathways for
mass transfer were proposed as apoplasmic transport
(external to cell membranes), symplasmic transport (inter-
nal to the plasma membrane) and trasmembrane flux
(Marcotte et al., 1991b). Rastogi et al. (2000) proposed that
a dehydration front moves during soaking time from the
surface in contact with osmotic solution to the material cen-
ter. Usually it is assumed that water transfer, with diffusion
coefficient D, is controlled by differences in moisture con-
tent. Ferrando and Spiess (2001) showed by experiments
at microscopic level that moisture diffusion coefficients for
several plant tissues are on the order of 1012 m2/s whereas
studies at a macroscopic level in sugar solution of carrot,
abs absolute value
Mr moisture ratio
Ms solid ratio
A shape parameter
SMQ sum of square of residuals
J 0, J 1
the roots of the Bessel function of zero and first
order
Mr_exp(t) moisture ratio experimental values at time t
Mr_prd(t) moisture ratio predicted values at time t
T2 spin–spin relaxation time (ms)
Subscript
0, 1, t the time 0, at equilibrium and at every treatment
times t
banana, coconut and pineapple showed diffusion
coefficients from 1010 to 109 (Rastogi and Raghavarao,
1994, 1996, 1997, 2004; Rastogi et al., 1996). These differ-
ences in effective diffusion coefficients suggest that a faster
mechanism compared to diffusion processes should exist.
Hence, hydrodynamic mechanisms (HDM) in the pores
are postulated to be occurring due to capillary pressure
and thus generate a pressure gradient leading to fast flow
of water through cellular material. This mechanism,
HDM, should provide a significant contribution to the
effective diffusion coefficient values (Chiralt and Fito,
2003). Moreover HDM flow from the solution into the tis-
sues have been observed in long time treatment after that
samples have reached equilibrium with the osmotic solution
(Chafer et al., 2001). This process has been associated with
mechanical relaxation of the cell membranes (i.e. swelling).
Mizrahi et al. (2001) stated that in long term osmotic dehy-
dration of gel systems three different additional mass trans-
fer mechanisms should be taken into account. Salvatori
et al. (1999) proposed alternative mechanisms such as cap-
illary penetration near the sample surface. The poor under-
standing of such mass transfer mechanisms has hindered the
development of industrial applications of this process as
well as effective mathematical modelling of the processes
(Raoult-Wack et al., 1994; Achanta and Okos, 1996).
In recent years nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been widely used
in food research to determine internal food quality, to
analyze food structure and quantify transport processes
(Belton et al., 2003). Kerr et al. (1998) studied how ice crys-
tal formation evolves during freezing of some food. Zion
et al. (1995) developed a method to detect bruises of apples
by magnetic resonance imaging. Chen et al. (1997) studied
the staling bread in terms of water mobility. Three peaks of
spin–spin relaxation time were showed and were defined as
three different states of water in the bread.
Very few papers concerning the use of NMR and MRI
techniques to investigate osmotic dehydration processes
 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528 521

are available in the literature. Hills and Remigereau (1997) surement) and wi are the moisture content at each sampling
studied the effect of osmotic dehydration on water diffusion times (t); wt0 and wti are the average of weight before and
in apple. They showed that during dehydration process on after each treatments.
apple tissue water is lost primarily from the vacuole rather Moisture content was measured gravimetrically by dry-
than cytoplasm or cell wall. Cornillon (2000) studied the ing 2.5 g of osmotically dehydrated apple samples in a vac-
effects of osmotic dehydration on water mobility in apples uum oven at 70 °C till a constant weight was measured. All
using low resolution NMR experiments. He showed the treatments were carried out in triplicate and the average
changes in terms of the proton spin–lattice relaxation time values were used.
(T1) population distribution as a function of treatment
time. In particular, for raw material the distribution was 2.2. Calculation of diffusion coefficient
monodisperse and for all osmodehydrated samples the
distribution was bi-modal. The author stated that by Diffusion coefficients were calculated using Fick’s second
measuring NMR relaxation time changes it was possible law equation applied to a finite cylinder of diameter 2r and
to measure a reduction in water mobility as a function of height 2l. The equation was solved by superimposition of
soaking time in osmotic solution. Evans et al. (2002) showed the solution for an infinitive cylinder and a semi infinite slab
the reduction in proton spin–spin relaxation time values (T2) (Crank, 1975; Rastogi et al., 1999; Rastogi et al., 2002):
" !#
in a slice of strawberry during osmotic dehydration in a ðmt  m1 Þ X 1
q2pn q2cn
sucrose solution and air drying. After 2 h of osmotic dehy- Mr ¼ ¼ C pn C cn Dew t 2 þ 2
ðm0  m1 Þ n¼1 l r
dration, T2 values decreased particularly in the first few
X1  
mm of the slice. The goal of this paper was to evaluate the q2
kinetics of mass transfer and gain an improved understand- ¼ C pn C cn Dew t cn2 ; ð4Þ
n¼1 A
ing of the mechanisms of mass transfer during osmotic dehy- " !#
dration process utilizing both conventional and magnetic ðst  s1 Þ X 1
q2pn q2cn
resonance-based experimental approaches. Sr ¼ ¼ C pn C cn Des t 2 þ 2
ðs0  s1 Þ n¼1 l r
X1  
q2
2. Materials and methods ¼ C pn C cn Des t cn2 ; ð5Þ
n¼1 A
2.1. Osmotic treatment apparatus where Mr and Sr (obtained from Eqs. (4) and (5), respec-
tively) are the moisture and solute ratio, respectively; m
Apples (Granny Smith) and commercial sucrose were and s are the moisture and solid content. Dew and Des are
purchased in local market (Davis, California, USA). After the effective diffusion coefficients for water and solute; t is
washing, apples were cut using a cork borer into a cylindri- the immersion time; C pn is equal to 2að1 þ aÞ=ð1 þ a þ
cal shape with a diameter of 15 mm. Then the length of cyl- a2 q2pn Þ where qpn are the non-zero positive roots of the equa-
inders was reduced to 20 mm using a knife. All samples had tion tan qpn = aqpn. Moreover Ccn is equal to 4að1 þ aÞ=
a weight of 3 ± 0.03 g. Osmotic solutions were prepared by ð4 þ 4a þ a2 q2pn Þ where qcn are the non-zero positive roots
dissolving an amount of sucrose in distilled water to obtain of the equation aqcnJ0 (qcn) + 2J1(qcn)=0. The J0(qcn) and
a concentration of 2.5 M. A solution:samples mass relation J1(qcn) are the roots of the Bessel function of zero and first
of 20:1 was used to avoid change in osmotic solution con- order, respectively; where A is defined by following
centration during the treatment time. All experiments were equation:
" #
carried out in glass beaker and solution agitation was pro-
1 1 r2 q 2
pn
moted by a magnetic stirrer at 400 rpm equipped with tem- ¼ 1þ : ð6Þ
perature controller (mod. Isotemp, Fisher Scientific, A2 r 2 l qcn
Pittsburgh, PA). The experiments were performed at To calculate diffusion coefficients for water and sucrose a
25 °C for different length of time sufficient for reaching specific file script was coded in MatlabÒ (Mathworks,
equilibrium moisture content. Natick, USA). In particular, the predicted moisture ratio
After treatment, apple cylinders were washed with tap (Mr) values were obtained by Fick’s second law equation
water for few seconds to remove the adhering osmotic solu- using 700 different coefficients diffusion ranging between
tion and gently blotted with tissue paper. Water loss (WL), 0.1e10 and 10e9 m2/s. So, the effective Dew values was cal-
solid gain (SG) and weight reduction (WR) were calculated culated by finding the value that minimized the sum of
by the following equations: squared residuals:
WL ¼ w0  wi ; ð1Þ X
1
2
SMQ ¼ ðMr expðtÞ  Mr prdðtÞÞ ð7Þ
WR ¼ wt0  wti ; ð2Þ
1
SG ¼ WL  WR; ð3Þ
in this way we were able to obtain the coefficient diffusion
where w0 is the moisture content on dry basis (g H2O/g dry that showed the minimum error (SMQ < 0.01) between Mr
basis) of raw material (an average from 20 individual mea- experimental and predicted values.
522 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528
To calculate the change in Dew values as a function of
length of treatment time, 700 different Mr values were cal-
culated (by Fickian model) for the first experimental point
(0.5 h) using 700 Dew values within the same range. More-
over, error values are calculated as
Error ¼ absðMr expðtÞ  Mr prdðtÞÞ;
where t = treatment time and abs = absolute value.
Plotting error values as a function on Dew we obtained
the values that gave us an error close zero. This procedure
was repeated for all treatment times.
2.3. NMR/MRI equipment
For MRI experiments cylindrical apple samples were
inserted into a 15  45 mm glass vials (Fisherbrand, Fisher
Scientific, USA) and the end cap was modified to allow
recycling of osmotic solution. A variable flow mini-pump
(medium-flow model 3386, Control Company, Friends-
wood, Texas, USA) was used to pump solution into a fluid
filled head space in the vials to maintain a constant concen-
tration of osmotic solution. The mini-pump was connected
to the glass vial with plastic tubing of size 1/16  1/8 inch
(Tygon application specific tubing, Saint-Gobain Perfor-
mance Plastics, Akron, OH, USA). In Fig. 1 there is a sche-
matic representation of the MRI – osmotic dehydration
experimental system.
Two dimensional proton images from the central region
of the sample were obtained using a 7T super-conducting
magnet in conjunction with a Biospec console (Brucker
Biospin MRI Inc., Billerica, MA). Spin–spin relaxation
times were estimated from multi-echo image data sets with
an echo time of 5.5 ms. The spin–lattice relaxation times
were determined from a saturation recovery experiment
and a standard pulsed-gradient spin echo experiment was
used to measure the diffusion coefficient. The field-of-view
was 4.8 cm with a slice thickness of 4 mm, echo time was
5.5 ms. The in-plane resolution were 750 lm/pixel. Data
was analyzed using the Curvefit Toolbox in MatlabÒ
R2006a (The Mathworks, Natick, MA, USA) to obtain
relaxation times and proton density of the tissue as a func-
tion of position inside the sample.
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of MRI system and the osmotic dehydration apparatus.
3. Results and discussion
The effects of osmotic dehydration treatment over time
were monitorated by moisture content, water loss (WL),
solid gain (SG) and also weight reduction (WR) (Spiazzi
ð8Þ and Mascheroni, 1997; Sacchetti et al., 2001). Fig. 2 shows
the moisture content of osmotically dehydrated apple tissue
as a function of dehydration time for a 2.5 M sucrose solu-
tion at 25 °C. The moisture content in the apple tissue
decreases exponentially with time from 5.54 g H2O/g dry
solids to 1.59 g H2O/g dry solids after 24 h. This exponen-
tial decrease in moisture content is in agreement with pre-
vious research (Passo Tsamo et al., 2005; Spiazzi and
Mascheroni, 1997; Rastogi et al., 1996; Rastogi and Rag-
havarao, 1997). Exponential changes are also observed in
weight reduction, sucrose uptake and water loss in the
apple tissue as shown in Fig. 3. Values of effective diffusion
coefficients for water, Dew, and sugar, Des, were estimated
fitting experimental data with a Fickian model (Figs. 4
and 5); the values obtained by fitting process were
4.10 * 1010 and 1.81 * 1010 m2/s for Dew and Des, respec-
tively. The values of the effective moisture diffusivity are in
good agreement with the literature (Hough et al., 1993).
For instance, Kaymak-Ertekin and Sulanoglu (2000) calcu-
lated Dew values between 1010 and 1011 m2/s for apple
samples osmotically treated at different temperatures.
The calculated Dew as a function of dehydration time is
plotted in Fig. 6. The Dew varies between 2 and
5 * 1010 m2/s over the 25 h. This Dew should be considered
as more of a kinetic parameter describing the overall mois-
ture transport effectively averaging the contributions from
all mechanisms. During the first 120 min of dehydration
Lewicki and Porzecka-Pawlak (2005) have measured the
increase in the circumference of intercellular spaces in
apple tissue (18.5–43% after 2 h of osmosis). These dra-
matic changes in sample structure and volume will result
in increases in solution and solute transport reflected in
increasing Dew values. As osmosis continues the rate of
change in tissue physical structure will be reduced and dif-
fusion mechanisms will become more relevant compared to
HDM. As time progresses from 10 to 16 h the difference in
concentration between solution and apple tissue are
 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528 523

Fig. 2. Variation of moisture content of apple samples during osmotic treatment in sucrose solution 2.5 M.

Fig. 3. Variation of water loss, solid gain and weight loss of apple samples during osmotic dehydration in sucrose solution 2.5 M.

decreasing and results in a decreased driving force for mass
transfer. At the later stages of the process the Dew is shown
to slightly increase which should be related to a reduction
in cell wall resistance. Lewicki and Porzecka-Pawlak
(2005) noted that prolonged osmotic dewatering leads to
apple tissue disintegration and destruction of continuity.
Rastogi et al. (2000) proposed a mechanism to
explain mass transfer at a cellular level during osmotic
dehydration. According to this theory, a non-uniform
concentration gradient inside biological systems exists. In
particular, the authors showed three different layers of cell
with different diffusion coefficients. After time t the first
layer of cell membranes shrunk and ruptured and mass
transport was characterized with a diffusion coefficient of
D1; below this layer a dehydration front exists and water
diffuses with D2  D1. The layers of cells inside the core
of sample have the original turgor pressure and water
transport is characterized with a coefficient diffusion
D3 < D1 because this layer is not in contact with osmotic
solution. In fact, the authors showed that the disintegration
524 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528

Fig. 4. Experimental and predicted values of moisture ratio of apple samples during osmotic dehydration in sucrose solution 2.5 M.

Fig. 5. Experimental and predicted values of solute ratio as a function of apple samples during osmotic dehydration in sucrose solution 2.5 M.
 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528 525

index of cells (Zp) decreased suddenly just before the dehy-
dration front which represent an intact cell system. This
mechanism is diagrammatically shown in Fig. 7.
In Fig. 8, it is possible to observe the NMR images of
apple samples as a function of osmotic treatment time in
sucrose solution. The images show the existence of a
dehydration front that moves from the surface in contact
with solution to the core of sample during soaking time.
At 0.5 h of treatment the samples showed a homogenous
water distribution inside the tissue. After 10 h the first
few millimeter of apple tissue showed a reduction of T2 val-
ues as shown by a decrease in signal. T2 changes in cellular

Fig. 6. Coefficient diffusion value as a function of soaking time of apple samples in sucrose solution 2.5 M.

Fig. 7. Schematic representation of osmotic treatment. Zp and M/Mo are the disintegration index and the relative moisture content as a function of
relative distance from the osmotic solution. Dx is the thickness of osmotic dehydration front. From (Rastogi et al., 2000).
526 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528
Fig. 8. NMR images of apple samples after 0.5, 10, 30 and 47 h of osmotic treatment in sucrose solution. Color map to describe the T2 (defined in ms)
values of samples.
tissue represent either changes in solute concentration,
changes in membrane permeability, changes in cell size or
a combination of these events. The figure relative to 30 h
shows an increment of dehydrated tissue thickness and a
change in position of dehydration front close to 40 mm.
It is interesting to observe that T2 values across the length
of apple sample (from 0 to 40 mm) are lower compared to
the images of 0.5 and 10 h as shown from reduction of
image brightness. At the end of the process, dehydration
front is below 40 mm and T2 values are between 0 and
0.1 ms for the surface in contact with solution and from
0.1 and 0.25 ms for the core of apple sample. In order to
show the significant reduction of T2 values during time of
treatment the profiles of T2 across the length of apple sam-
ples are shown in Fig. 9. The sample 0.5 treated for 0.5 h
shows the maximum value at the core of apple cylinder
and drops to low value at the surface in contact with solu-
tion (from 33 to 37 mm) and on the base of vial (from 0 to
5 mm). After 10 h T2 values are lower in the first few mm of
apple tissue in contact with sucrose solution (from 39 to
33 mm) compared to the first sample. Again T2 values
increases from 33 mm, it reaches a maximum at 17 mm,
then decreases to close the base of glass vial (from 0 to
5 mm).
A significant reduction of T2 values appears after 30 h of
treatment. In particular, from 40 to 33 mm of length across
apple samples T2 values are relatively constant at 0.06 ms,
after this point T2 values increase and reach a maximum
value at 17 mm of length and then decrease again toward
0 mm (on the base of vials). At the end of process (47 h)
the first millimetres of tissue in contact with osmotic solu-
tion do not show significant differences from the previous
sample, probably due to the complete dehydration of tis-
sue, but from 33 to 0 mm the T2 values become signifi-
cantly lower compared to 30 h sample. In contrast to the
mechanism displayed in Fig. 7 it seems that not only the
first few layers of cells are dehydrated during the treatment
time but also the core of the sample. So, it seems that the
mass transfer mechanism proposed by Rastogi et al.
(2000) (Fig. 7) does not completely explain what happens
during osmotic dehydration in terms of mass transfer.
Water flows from the surface to the osmotic solution and
from the core to the surface at the same time during osmo-
tic process. So, from our results all layers of the apple tissue
were involved in the dehydration process at the same time,
hence it is reasonable to suppose that several mass transfer
mechanisms occur during osmotic treatment. In the last
few years some authors proposed that many different mass
transfer mechanisms can act at the same time during osmo-
tic dehydration. The complex microstructure of fruit tissue
means that osmotic dehydration cannot be explained as a
simply diffusion process. Fito and Chiralt (2003) stated
the importance of recognition of different mass transfer
mechanism as symplastic, apoplastic, trasmembrane fluxes,
hydrodynamic mechanism (HDM). The hydrodynamic
mechanisms usually are coupled with deformation–relaxa-
 A. Derossi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2008) 519–528
Fig. 9. T2 profiles along the cross of osmotically apple samples as a function of time treatment in sucrose solution 2.5 M.
tion phenomena of a solid matrix (Fito et al., 1998; Barat
et al., 2001). Salvatori et al. (1999) proposed alternatives
transport mechanisms like capillary penetration or another
fast transport mechanism occurring near the interface of
the samples. Shi and Fito-Maupoey (1994) proposed that
capillary flow is closely related to the porosity of the apri-
cot fruit. It is important to emphasize that the mass trans-
fer mechanism and the water distribution during and at the
end of osmotic dehydratation are very important to obtain
safe food with high organoleptic quality. For instance,
microbial stability of intermediate moisture food is usually
measured by water activity but this parameter is relative
only at the surface of product in equilibrium with atmo-
spheric pressure. Several food exist in non-equilibrium
state and in this way only the relative vapour pressure
but not the true vapour pressure are measured (Slade and
Levine, 1991).
4. Conclusion
A Fickian-based unsteady state diffusion model was
found to adequately describe the kinetics of osmotic
dehydration for apple tissue in a sucrose solution. The
Dew and Des were found to be consistent with the known lit-
erature. In particular Dew and Des values were 4.10 * 1010
and 1.81 * 1010, respectively. NMR images showed the
existence of a dehydration front that moved during treat-
ment time from the edge to the core of apples. MRI results
527
across the length of apple cylinders as a function of time
showed that all layers of apple tissue were involved in the
dehydration process at the same time. These results empha-
size the hypothesis proposed by several authors that other
dehydration mechanisms like capillarity, HDM and Darcy
flows are involved during osmotic treatment.
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