Osmotic and convective hot air drying of sweet gourd

Kinetics of osmotic dehydration (OD) and insights into the effect of salt concentration (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%), drying temperature (50 ∘ C, 60 ∘ C, 70 ∘ C), and sample thickness (4 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm) on the drying kinetics of sweet gourd of two varieties (SGV-1 and SGV-2) were investigated based on the Fick’s second law of diffusion model. Quality attributes (chemical and organoleptic) of biscuit formulated with osmotic dehydrated sweet gourd powder were assessed. Results showed that, significant changes occurred during the first 2 h of process where mass transfer kinetics were increased with increasing salt concentration. With increasing time, drying rate was proportional to the temperature, inversely proportional to the sample thickness as well as salt concentration. Moreover, sweet gourd variety has shown impact on formulated products quality and consumer acceptability which could serve as a ground to diversify the use of sweet gourd towards industrial application.