Özet:

In this study, the effects of microwave, convective, and microwave-convective drying treatments on the drying parameters, colour and microstructure properties of barbunia samples were investigated. To select the best thin-layer drying models for the drying treatments, 9 mathematical models were fitted to the experimental data and the performances of these models were compared for the following statistical parameters: reduced chi-squared (χ2), root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2). Among the drying models investigated, the Midilli et al. model was found to be the best model for describing the drying behaviour of barbunia beans. The experimental results showed that increasing the drying temperature or microwave power level caused shorter drying time and the combined microwave-convective method provided the greatest time savings in comparison to other methods tested. At all drying conditions, the closest values to the colour of fresh barbunia was obtained at 50C. It was found that browning increased with an increase in drying temperature and microwave power. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the applications of all the drying methods led to different physical changes in the products’ microstructures when compared to fresh samples.

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