406347

Prediction of Optimum Humidity Condition for Storage of Some Egyptian Dry Fruits and its Effect on Physical Properties of Fruits

Article

Last updated: 09 Mar 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Food Chemistry

Abstract

This work aimed to establish sorption isotherms curves for the dry fruits of apricots, raisins and Saidi dates and their relationship to the expected shelf life, color and hardness of the tested fruits. Results showed that the ob-tained sorption curves are of sigmoidal shape and that content and type of sugars in the fruits is crucial for the level of equilibrium moisture content (Me) at water activity level of 0.11 to 0.85 at 25±5℃, whereby sucrose rich fruits (apricots) recorded Me – values lower than those of high levels in reducing sugars (raisins and Saidi dates). GAB and Halsey isotherms equations were suitable for presenting sorption curves of raisins and dates (Relative deviation percent" P" <10%), while Henderson – equation gave a high R2 – value of 0.93 for apricot, s sorption data but with patterned residual (P%). Monolayer moisture content Mm was in the range of 0.0547 (apricots) and 0.119 to 0.147 g H2O/ gDM for raisins and dates. Expected shelf life of the tested dry fruits was estimated from the slope of multilayer portion of the sorption curves to be 7.16 to 7.40 months at 25℃ and 70% relative humidity in the surrounding atmosphere outside a polyethylene package containing the dried fruits and it could be extended to 10-11 months if surrounding relative humidity maintained at 50% level. At water activity levels 0.11 and 0.22, the fruits showed high hardness values of 1738 to 1412 N/m2 for dry apricots and raisins, while dates showed values of 198 to 84 N/m2 . Increasing aw – level to 0.85 drastically reduced hardness values. L, b, chroma and Hue◦- values of the dried fruits were decreased by increasing aw – level from 0.11 to 0.85, while red-ness (a-values) were increased. Browning reached a maximum at o.7 to 0.75 aw – level and decreased at lower aw – values.

DOI

10.21608/ejchem.2025.345508.11009

Keywords

Dried fruits, sorption isotherms, Apricots, raisins, Saidi dates, shelf life, Color

Authors

First Name

Abeir

Last Name

Elbaz

MiddleName

M. F.

Affiliation

Food Engineering and Packaging Department, Food Technology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, 12613 Giza, Egypt

Email

drabeer_elbaz@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Amgad

Last Name

El-Kady

MiddleName

A. M.

Affiliation

Food Engineering and Packaging Department, Food Technology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, 12613 Giza, Egypt

Email

amgadelkady37@yahoo.com

City

Giza

Orcid

-

First Name

Entsar

Last Name

Mohamed

MiddleName

Noureldin

Affiliation

Food Engineering and Packaging Department, Food Technology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, 12613 Giza, Egypt

Email

entnour@gmail.com

City

GIZA

Orcid

0000-0003-0777-9793

Volume

68

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

53249

Issue Date

2025-01-01

Receive Date

2024-12-18

Publish Date

2025-01-01

Page Start

593

Page End

607

Print ISSN

0449-2285

Online ISSN

2357-0245

Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/article_406347.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=406347

Order

406,347

Type

Original Article

Type Code

297

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Chemistry

Publication Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Prediction of Optimum Humidity Condition for Storage of Some Egyptian Dry Fruits and its Effect on Physical Properties of Fruits

Details

Type

Article

Created At

01 Feb 2025