DRYING KINETICS, FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY ANALYSIS AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF SUN, HOT-AIR, MICROWAVE AND FREEZE DRIED MANGO LEATHER.

Mango leather produced from dried mango pulp is a traditional fruit product in India. Traditionally it is processed through natural convective drying or sun drying of ripe mango pulp. Mango leather was produced through sun, convective (hot air), freeze, and microwave drying. Drying kinetics was studied with the help of nine empirical models used extensively in food industries. Root mean square error (RMSE), correlation coefficient (R²), and the sum of square errors (SSE) these four statistical measures were examined for nine different models to learn the best-fitted model. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy study was conducted for compositional analysis of differently dried samples in the wavelength range of 400-4000 cm-1 at ambient temperature. For sensory analysis, the test panel was constructed as per ISO 8586-1. ISO 4120:2004, ISO 5496:2005, ISO 10399:2004 standards were maintained for selecting panel members. Quantitative descriptive analysis of different mango leather was estimated as per the protocols defined in ISO 11035:1994. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]