Abstract:

Intermediate-moisture figs obtained by rehydration of dried figs are more suitable for direct consumption. Colour and texture are the most important quality attributes, which influence the acceptability of this product. In this research the kinetic of color and texture changes in rehydrated figs were studied as a function of time and temperature (25-90 °C). All hunter colour parameters (L*, a* and b*) were used to estimate the extent of colour change during rehydration. Results indicated that among different kinetic models, a combined kinetic model provided the best fit. Moreover, texture development kinetics over all temperature ranges were satisfactorily described by means of first-order kinetic model compared with second-order, Weibull and Peleg models. Model parameters including texture softening (k) and residual constant (A) values were calculated which also confirmed the decrease in firmness of the dried figs due to the plasticization effect of water intake. The Arrhenius model described well the temperature dependence of the reaction rate constant for colour and texture parameters. Keywords: Dried figs; Rehydration; Kinetics model; Colour; Texture

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