Modelling of mass transfer during osmotic dehydration of apple tissue pre-treated by pulsed electric field

The osmotic dehydration mechanism of apple sample pre-treated by pulsed electric field (PEF) was investigated over a range of 44.5–65 ° Brix sucrose concentrations. Apple disks treated by PEF field of 0.90 kV/cm during a constant time tPEF=0.75s were immersed in sucrose solution at ambient temperature with 3:1 syrup to apple ratio (w/w). Increase of the initial solute concentration and the PEF treatment resulted in acceleration of the osmotic dehydration (OD). The PEF-treated samples had a higher water loss (WL) and higher solid gain (SG) than the untreated samples. The osmotic dehydration kinetics was studied on the basis of two approaches: Fick's unsteady state diffusion equation and a two-exponential kinetic model. The coefficients of effective diffusion of water and solute were calculated. Their values were higher for samples pre-treated electrically. The effect of PEF was more pronounced for the WL comparatively to the SG. The two-exponential kinetic model permits evaluating of both convective and diffusion stages of OD. The PEF pre-treatment accelerates the kinetics of water and solute transfer during convective and diffusion stages of OD.