Kinetics of Microwave Vacuum Drying of "Cat Chu" Mango in Mekong Delta - Vietnam

Microwave vacuum drying is one of innovative drying techniques that is today used in drying of foods, medical products and other high quality products. In this drying technology, heat is generated by directly transforming the electromagnetic energy into kinetic molecular energy of water, thus the heat is produced deep within the material to be dried under vacuum environment. This paper presents the results of research on microwave vacuum drying of "Cat Chu" mango in Mekong Delta - Vietnam. "Cat Chu" mango, with moisture content of (80 [+ or -] 1) % (wet basis - wb), was sliced into 5 cm thickness, and was dried in mWaveVacO 150-Ic dryer. The results of this research showed that high quality product in terms of color, surface shrinkage and structure was obtained by microwave vacuum drying. The results also indicated that there was a higher exchange in surface and a greater internal diffusion of experimental microwave vacuum drying samples compared to the control vacuum and hot-air drying samples.