Drying kinetics in cantaloupe melons dehydrated by osmosis, accompanied by conventional drying

Melon is considered a product of high commercial value, but its post-harvest shelf life is short at room temperature. As an alternative to reducing postharvest losses, osmotic dehydration arouses interest as a pre-treatment for fruit drying. The present work aimed to obtain the drying curves in osmotically dehydrated melons, followed by conventional drying. A syrup was prepared using crushed crystal sugar up to a concentration of 30 ºBrix, in the proportion 2:1 syrup/fruit, drying was at 50ºC and drying curves were determined as a function of weight losses per gram of the samples during the process until constant weight. The results showed that for both treatments, it is possible to observe a characteristic curve that decreases over time, with treatment 2, with the use of osmotic solution a lower loss of mass (g) during drying. The R² regression coefficients presented values of 0.7878 for treatment 1, and values of 0.848 for treatment 2. The melons treated with osmotic solution showed higher solids gain at the end of the drying process and better fit to the experimental drying data.