Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 305314 www.elsevier.

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Impregnation and osmotic dehydration of some fruits: eect of the vacuum pressure and syrup concentration
pez-Malo b, E. Palou b, J. Welti-Chanes jica-Paz a, A. Valdez-Fragoso a, A. Lo H. Mu
b

b,*

a Facultad de Ciencias Qu micas, Universidad Auto noma de Chihuahua, Ciudad Universitaria, Chihuahua 31170, Mexico ricas-Puebla, Santa Catarina Ma rtir, Cholula, Puebla 72820, Mexico Departamento de Ingenier a Qu mica y Alimentos, Universidad de las Ame

Received 1 August 2000; received in revised form 24 July 2002; accepted 29 July 2002

Abstract Apple, mango and melon were subjected to impregnation and osmotic dehydration at vacuum pressure (VI-VOD). The eect of the vacuum pressure (135674 mbar) and concentration of the sucrose solutions (4160Brix) on the mass transfer parameters were evaluated. The lowest nal aw levels in apple and mango were achieved with 50Brix syrup and vacuum pressure of 674 mbar and in melon with 57Brix and 593 mbar. Water loss of similar magnitude was observed in melon and mango, and there was water gain in the case of apple. The solids gain (SG) in apple was higher than in melon and mango. Minimal values of SG were detected in mango, and a maximum SG value was observed in apple. Melon and mango presented weight losses of up to 8.9% while the weight of apple increased. Results indicated that the impregnation phenomena predominated in the combined VI-VOD process of apple and osmotic dehydration phenomena in melon and mango. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Impregnation; Osmotic dehydration; Vacuum pressure; Syrup concentration; Fruits

1. Introduction Osmotic dehydration (OD) is a process that allows to obtain partially dehydrated foods. This process has been broadly studied at atmospheric pressure (AOD), to know the eect of factors such as concentration of osmotic solution (OS), type of solute, temperature, time, agitation, etc., on the dehydration of many products (Hawkes & Flink, 1978; Le Maguer & Biswal, 1988; Lerici, Pinnavaia, Dalla Rosa, & Mastrocola, 1983; pez-Malo, Argaiz, & Welti Chanes, 1993). Palou, Lo Recently, both impregnation and OD at vacuum pressure (VI-VOD) have been studied, since a faster dehydration can be achieved by means of this treatment and, at the same time, active compounds can be impregnated in foods in a controlled way (Fito & Chiralt, 1994). One advantage of VI-VOD over AOD is that the solidliquid interface area and the mass transfer between both phases could be increased by the use of sub-atmospheric , conditions (Fito, Chiralt, Barat, & Mart nez-Monzo 2002).

Corresponding author. Tel.: +522-229-2005; fax: +522-229-2009. E-mail address: jwelti@mail.udlap.mx (J. Welti-Chanes).

In VI-VOD processes, product porosity and deformation behavior when subjected to vacuum pressures are required, since they determine the volume that could be occupied by an external liquid in the product tissue (Salvatori, Andr es, Chiralt, & Fito, 1998). These properties have been determined in several fruits, impregnating them with isotonic solutions at dierent vacuum levels (Andr es, Prado, Fito, & Chiralt, 1994; Guerrero, 1996; pez-Malo, Palou, & jica-Paz, Valdez-Fragoso, Lo Mu Welti Chanes, 2002; Salvatori, 1997). The eect of the concentration of the OS on the composition of some fruits subjected to VOD, such as apple (Barat, Chiralt, , Mart & Fito, 1998; Mart nez Monzo nez Navarrete, Chiralt, & Fito, 1998; Mata, 1992), mango (D avila, pez, Fito, Chiralt, & Fito, & Pensaben, 1993), kiwi (Lo D avila, 1994), and banana (Sousa, Pulido, Fito, & Serra, 1994), has also been studied. The hydrodynamic mechanism coupled with the relaxationdeformation phenomena has been used to explain and model mass transfer that occurs during VOD (Fito & Chiralt, 1994). Throughout the VI-VOD, the vacuum pressure and the OS concentration gradients can produce changes in the structure of the product and in the dehydration kinetics, which depend on a great extent on the viscoelastic properties of the solid matrix. To date, no

0260-8774/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 0 - 8 7 7 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 3 4 4 - 8

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Nomenclature b0 , b1 , b2 , linear regression coecients Eq. (4) b12 , b11 , b22 cross product and quadratic regression coecients Eq. (4) wt weight of the fruit at the end of treatment wst weight of the solids in the fruit at the end of treatment ws0 initial weight of solids ww0 X 1 , X2 Y D aw initial weight of water coded values of the osmotic solution concentration and vacuum pressure, respectively response variables WL, SG, WR, and aw percent global aw depression of fruits subjected to OD process (%)

in-depth studies have been made on the eect of vacuum and OS concentration levels and the combined eect of both, on dehydration parameters. Therefore, the present study was performed to investigate the combined eect of vacuum pressure and the OS concentration on the dehydration parameters of apple, mango and melon, which present dierent structural and porosity characteristics.

2. Materials and methods 2.1. Sample preparation Mango (Manguifera indica var. Manila), apple (Malus domestica var. Golden Delicious) and melon (Cucumis melo var. Reticulado) were bought in the local market. Fruit edible portion was cut into 3:5 2:5 1:2 cm slices and were subjected to OD treatments. 2.2. Analytical methods Moisture content, titrable acidity and reducing sugars content were determined according to the AOAC (1984) methods 22.013, 22.008, 31.03431.036, respectively. Soluble solids content (Brix) were measured with an Atago Hand refractometer (Atago Co., Osaka, Japan), and water activity was determined with a Decagon CX-1 hygrometer (Decagon Devices Inc., Pullman, WA). Apparent density (qa ) was measured in fruit pieces and real density (qr ) in fruit purees, using the picnometer method (Salvatori, 1997). Real porosity of the fruits was calculated as reported by Salvatori (1997). 2.3. Impregnationdehydration treatment VI-VOD treatments were carried out at 25 C in vacuum desiccators. OS were prepared with commercial sucrose. Four slices of each fruit were weighed individually and submerged in the hypertonic solution in a 1/10 (w/w) fruit/syrup ratio. Treatments were applied at predetermined vacuum pressures for 10 min, followed

by a 10-min relaxation period at atmospheric pressure. After OD treatment, the hypertonic solution adhered to the surface of the slices was eliminated. The fruit samples were weighed and then blended to determine soluble solids, water activity and moisture content. Additionally, OD of the three fruits was carried out at same levels of OS concentration and at atmospheric pressure (AOD) for 20 min. In each treatment, the OD parameters of the fruits were calculated based on the following equations (Giangiacomo, Torreggiani, & Abbo (1987)): WL ww0 wt wst 100 ws0 ww0 1

SG

wst ws0 100 ws0 ww0

WR WL SG

where SG, WL, and WR represent the solids gain, water loss and weight reduction, respectively; ww0 is the weight of water and ws0 is the weight of solids initially present in the fruit; wt and wst are the weight of the fruit and the weight of solids at the end of treatment, respectively. 2.4. Experimental method and statistical analysis A central composite experimental design (Cornell, 1990) was used to study the eect of the OS concentration and vacuum pressure level on the OD parameters (Table 1). This methodology allows the modeling of a second-order polynomial that describes the response. Data are analyzed by multiple regression through the least square method to t the following equation: Y b0 b1 X1 b2 X2 b12 X1 X2 b11 X12 b22 X22 4

The ANOVA statistical analysis was performed using Design Expert (1996, V.5.0.3).

H. M ujica-Paz et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 57 (2003) 305314 Table 1 Vacuum OD variables and experimental design levels Variable Coded value Concentration (Brix) Vacuum pressure (mbar) Coded symbol X1 X2 Levels )1.41 40 135 )1 43 213 0 50 404 1 57 595 1.41 60 674

307

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Analytical results Table 2 shows the mean values and standard deviation of the physico-chemical characteristics of the studied fruits. All the fruits presented a rm texture and good organoleptic characteristics. 3.2. Osmotic dehydration at atmospheric pressure Table 3 presents the obtained OD parameters for apple, melon and mango, subjected to AOD treatments for 20 min in OS ranging from 40 to 60Brix. WL and

WR of mango were greater than those obtained for melon and apple. In general, fruits aw decreased as the concentration of the OS increased, and the WL, SG and WR increased with the concentration, except for SG in mango, which tended to decrease.

3.3. Vacuum impregnation and vacuum osmotic dehydration The VI-VOD treatments of apple, melon, and mango were carried out to ll a central composite design (Table 1) so that results might be displayed as response surfaces. Therefore, a regression analysis was applied to

Table 2 Physico-chemical properties of the studied fruits Property Moisture content (g water/100 g sample) Total soluble solids (Brix) aw Tritable acidity (g acid/100 g sample)a Reducing sugars (g glucose/100 g sample) Apparent density (kg/m3 ) Real density (kg/m3 ) Real porosity (%)
a

Mango 84.1 0.7 16.1 0.3 0.988 0.001 1.37 0.01 3.20 0.05 0.918 0.010 1.082 0.020 0.152 0.001

Apple 88.9 0.8 14.6 0.2 0.991 0.002 0.320 0.006 9.5 0.2 0.764 0.030 1.051 0.020 0.273 0.011

Melon 94.4 0.8 13.6 0.2 0.993 0.001 0.38 0.00 2.90 0.04 0.899 0.000 1.043 0.03 0.133 0.006

Expressed as malic acid for apple, and as citric acid for mango, and melon.

Table 3 Eect of the solution concentration on the WL, SG, WR, and water activity (aw ) throughout the atmospheric OD of apple, melon and mango Product Apple Concentration (Brix) 40 43 50 57 60 40 43 50 57 60 40 43 50 57 60 WL (%) 1.10 1.30 2.25 2.61 3.03 3.88 3.74 5.95 6.65 7.20 6.49 7.84 8.10 9.41 9.74 SG (%) 2.03 3.25 4.40 4.80 4.80 2.83 2.87 2.95 3.30 4.19 1.78 1.66 1.22 0.95 0.85 WR (%) )0.93 )1.95 )2.15 )2.19 )1.77 1.05 0.87 3.0 3.35 3.01 4.71 6.18 6.88 8.46 8.89 aw 0.985 0.985 0.985 0.982 0.980 0.993 0.993 0.991 0.992 0.991 0.987 0.987 0.986 0.985 0.985

Melon

Mango

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Table 4 Regression coecients and variance analysis of the second-order models to evaluate the VOD process applied to apple (index 0: constant; index 1: concentration; index 2: vacuum) Response WL Coecients b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 73.9 8.5 )4.71 2.73 )0.67 0.49 0.94 1.16 df 5 5 SE 0.76 0.46 0.46 0.65 0.55 0.55 MS 14.8 1.7 t-stat 5.9 )1.45 0.75 1.71 2.12 F 8.64 pt 0.002 0.207 0.485 0.147 0.088 pF 0.016

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:900 SG

b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 11.53 1.25

8.94 )0.17 0.94 )0.39 )0.76 )0.46 df 5 5

0.29 0.18 0.18 0.25 0.21 0.21 MS 2.31 0.25

)0.99 5.30 )1.57 )3.60 )2.17 F 9.20 0.01

0.367 0.003 0.177 0.010 0.081 pF 0.014

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:900 WR

b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 113.34 12.51

)13.64 2.89 )1.5 0.88 1.66 1.72 df 5 5

0.91 0.56 0.56 0.79 0.67 0.67 MS 22.67 2.50

5.18 )2.68 1.12 2.50 2.60 F 9.06

0.003 0.043 0.054 0.048 0.315 pF 0.010

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:900

The bold character indicates that the corresponding parameter has a signicant eect on WL, SG, and WR.

correlate the mean values of WL, SG, WR, and aw with the independent variables. The resulting second-order polynomials are shown in Tables 46, as well as the relative contribution of independent variables to the statistical t. It is observed that the regression models for the dehydration parameters were signicant at p 6 0:10, except for aw values (not shown). All second-order polynomials agreed well with the experimental data and gave R2 values above 0.900, except for WR of melon (R2 0:760), and SG of mango (R2 0:770). The level of signicance (p-value) of all signicant coecients was less than 0.10. Based on these models, response surfaces for WL, SG and WR were generated (Figs. 13, respectively). These graphs represent the evolution of such process parameters in function of the vacuum pressure and syrup concentration.

Water loss. The response surfaces presented in Fig. 1 show that in the VI-VOD of apple, melon and mango slices, the WL increased as OS concentration increased, similarly to what occurs in the process at atmospheric pressure. However, apple presented positive and negative WL values (Fig. 1a). The negative values indicate that there is a water gain caused by the impregnation of the OS in the tissue. These phenomena predominate when solutions with concentrations up to 50Brix are used. In the range of 5560Brix, positive WL values are observed that indicate an important WL probably due to the prevailing of the dehydration phenomena under these conditions. These results can be attributed to the fact that the low viscosity OS (<50Brix) are impregnated in a massive way in the product resulting in a water gain, while the high viscosity OS (>55Brix) has

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Table 5 Regression coecients and variance analysis of the second order models to evaluate the VOD process applied to melon (index 0: constant; index 1: concentration; index 2: vacuum) Response WL Coecients b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 19.98 1.14 5.34 0.89 1.06 0.68 0.19 0.68 df 5 5 SE 0.28 0.17 0.17 0.24 0.20 0.20 MS 4.00 0.23 t-stat 5.30 6.32 2.84 0.94 3.40 F 17.53 pt 0.003 0.001 0.036 0.391 0.019 pF 0.003

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:946 SG

b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 7.06 0.81

3.47 0.62 0.47 0.45 0.29 )0.31 df 5 5

0.23 0.14 0.14 0.20 0.17 0.17 MS 1.41 0.16

4.35 3.28 2.23 1.72 )1.80 F 8.70

0.007 0.022 0.075 0.145 0.131 pF 0.010

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:900 WR

b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 26.83 8.60

1.86 0.73 1.05 1.13 0.12 1.21 df 5 5

0.76 0.46 0.46 0.66 0.55 0.55 MS 5.37 1.72

1.57 2.26 1.72 0.22 2.22 F 3.12

0.178 0.073 0.145 0.848 0.078 pF 0.100

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:760

The bold character indicates that the corresponding parameter has a signicant eect on WL, SG, and WR.

diculty penetrating the tissue pores, and its greater osmotic pressure favors the outcome of water from the fruit (Barat et al., 1998). The eect of OS concentration on WL of the studied  fruits is similar to the eect noted by Mart nez Monzo et al. (1998) in VOD treatment of cylindrical samples of apple with grape must. D avila et al. (1993) achieved higher WL values (15.2%) for mango under vacuum conditions and higher temperature (35 C) than in this study (WL 3:5%). Fig. 1b shows the linear eect of VP (p < 0:01) and its interaction with OS concentration on the WL of melon (p < 0:05), as well as a quadratic eect of the OS concentration on the WL of apple (p < 0:10) (Fig. 1a) and mango (p < 0:01) (Fig. 1c). The quadratic eect implies that for each OS concentration there were VP levels at

which a minimum WL was obtained. For example, in the case of mango at 50 and 60Brix, the minimum WL was 6.0% and 7.7% at 378 and 324 mbar, respectively (Fig. 1c). The quadratic eect resulted from the combined action of the penetration of OS into the pores and OD processes. This eect was more noticeable at low syrup concentration levels and it reduced as the OS concentration increased. This fact can be explained by a possible prevailing of the OD mechanism over that of impregnation, for high concentration syrups. Solids gain. It can be observed in Fig. 2a that at a determined VP, the SG in apple increased and then decreased with the OS concentration (p < 0:05), and this change is presented at approximately 50Brix. This behavior can be again attributed to the action of the diluted solutions, which penetrate better into the pores

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Table 6 Regression coecients and variance analysis of the second order models to evaluate the VOD process applied to mango (index 0: constant; index 1: concentration; index 2: vacuum) Response WL Coecients b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 19.71 1.76 6.06 1.22 0.27 0.37 0.06 1.05 df 5 5 SE 0.34 0.21 0.21 0.30 0.25 0.25 MS 3.94 0.35 t-stat 5.81 1.28 1.25 0.23 4.23 F 11.18 pt 0.002 0.255 0.268 0.830 0.008 pF 0.009

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:918 SG

b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 8.68 2.62

)0.05 0.02 )0.21 0.84 0.08 0.96 df 5 5

0.42 0.26 0.26 0.36 0.30 0.30 MS 1.74 0.52

0.09 )0.82 2.33 0.28 3.16 F 3.31

0.928 0.449 0.060 0.780 0.020 pF 0.100

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:77 WR

b0 b1 b2 b12 b11 b22 SS 14.58 1.55

6.36 1.21 0.49 )0.45 0.07 0.19 df 5 5

0.32 0.20 0.20 0.28 0.23 0.23 MS 2.92 0.31

6.14 2.48 )1.61 0.32 0.83 F 9.42

0.001 0.055 0.170 0.763 0.444 pF 0.013

Analysis of variance Source Model Residual R2 0:904

The bold character indicates that the corresponding parameter has a signicant eect on WL, SG, and WR.

than the concentrated ones and OD is less important. As shown in Table 4, the increase of the VP showed a quadratic eect on SG (p < 0:10), and it can be observed that at a determined OS concentration, the increase of vacuum favored the occupation of pores and as a consequence, the SG of apple, until reaching a maximum value. Thus, if the quadratic eect of the concentration and the vacuum is taken into account, the maximum solids gain in apple was 9.6% at 47Brix and 647 mbar. In the case of melon, the eect of VP (p < 0:05), of the OS concentration, and their interaction (p < 0:10) on SG can be observed in Fig. 2b. The important increase of the SG at high VP levels and OS concentration could be attributed to a deformation of the tissue structure by the action of vacuum. This deformation would allow penetration of the concentrated OS which,

due to its high viscosity, will not ow out of the fruit during the relaxation period. During the treatment of mango, the only eect on SG found was that of VP (p < 0:05) and of vacuum pressureconcentration interaction (p < 0:01). The form of Fig. 2c indicates the presence of complex phenomena that could be explained considering the brous structure of mango, since its eective porosity is very low jica-Paz et al., 2002). At low VP levels (ee 0:01) (Mu the brous structure of mango can be easily occupied by diluted solutions; however, as the concentration increases, the OS are more viscous and they have more diculties penetrating the tissue. On the other hand, the application of high VP can open the brous structure of mango, producing spaces that can be lled with a low concentration OS (low viscosity), which can exit the

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566.2 458.4
350.6 242.8

566.2
458.4 350.6

458.4 350.6

Fig. 1. Eect of vacuum and the solution concentration on the WL of apple (a), melon (b), and mango (c) slices.

Fig. 2. Eect of vacuum pressure and solution concentration on the SG of apple (a), melon (b), and mango (c) slices.

tissue together with native liquid during the relaxation period at atmospheric pressure, yielding low SG values. However, the behavior of SG due to the action of high VP and very concentrated OS would be similar to that described for melon. This interpretation of the SG behavior in melon and mango should be veried with detailed microscopy studies.

SG values calculated from the data of Mart nez  et al. (1998) varied from 6.4% to 8.4% for apple Monzo cylinders, while in the present work varied from 6% to 4.5% with an OS in the range of 5060Brix. These dierences may be attributed to the molecular weight of

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WR of apple and a linear eect on melon (p < 0:05) and mango (p < 0:05). It can be observed in Fig. 3 that only apple had a weight gain (reected by the negative sign of WR), which reached a maximum value of 15.7% at 43Brix and 539 mbar. These results can be explained taking into account the eective porosity values reported in literature. Thus, the high porosity of apple (ee 0:33) jica-Paz et al., 2002) facilitated the (Guerrero, 1996; Mu impregnation of hypertonic solutions what caused a weight gain; on the contrary, the low porosity of mango jica-Paz et al., (ee 0:01) and melon (ee 0:07) (Mu 2002) favored a greater dehydration.

3.4. Eect of the osmotic dehydration and impregnation phenomena on aw depression Even when the statistical analysis shows a slight correlation between the studied variables and the nal aw level in fruits, it is important to discuss the values of such aw . So, Table 7 summarizes the water activity depression (Daw ) of apple, mango and melon obtained under atmospheric and sub-atmospheric conditions. In the case of apple, it can be noticed that vacuum conditions produced slightly greater aw depression by using 50Brix syrups. At lower syrup concentrations, vacuum pressure had a slight benet, while at higher concentrations, this benet was practically non-existent. These results agree with the behavior of the WL and SG parameters during the VOD of apple under dierent vacuum and syrup concentrations, as illustrated in Figs. 1a and 2a. The Daw values observed in apple can be attributed to the incorporation of solutes in the matrix of the fruit. In eect, Fig. 4 shows that under vacuum conditions apple slabs can reach a SG around 10%, while under atmospheric pressure only a 5.5% SG can be achieved. The Daw of melon was more noticeable at vacuum pressure than at atmospheric conditions (Table 7). The benecial eect on Daw is probably due to the tissue deformation of melon that produces a general increase in WL and SG as shown in Fig. 4. The application of vacuum pressures allows the structure of the tissue to open during the deformation, restraining more syrup than that foreseen according to the original porosity of the fruit (Andr es, 1995; Fito & Pastor, 1994; Fito, Andr es, Chiralt, & Pardo, 1996). In the case of mango, the aw depression in the vacuum treatment was only greater in some cases, and this behavior cannot be explained in terms of WL and SG. Thus, a more in-depth investigation is required. As can be seen in Table 7, the aw depression of apple (1.88%), melon (0.91%) and mango (0.61%) obtained under vacuum conditions seems to achieve the aw values required in the minimally processed fruits (Tapia de Daza, Alzamora, & WeltiChanes, 1996).

Fig. 3. Eect of vacuum pressure and solution concentration on the WR of apple (a), melon (b), and mango (c) slices.

solutes, it appears that solutes in grape must (glucose and fructose) penetrate apple tissue more easily than sucrose. Weight reduction. According to the results presented in Tables 46 and Fig. 3, only the WR in apple and mango were aected by the OS concentration (p < 0:01). The VP applied had a quadratic eect (p < 0:05) on the

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Table 7 Depression of water activity (Daw ) in apple, melon, and mango obtained throughout OD at atmospheric and sub-atmospheric conditions, at dierent OS concentrations Concentration (Brix) 40 43 43 50 50 50 57 57 60 Atmospheric Daw apple (%) 0.61 0.61 0.61 0.61 0.61 0.61 0.91 0.91 1.11 Daw melon (%) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.10 0.10 0.20 Daw mango (%) 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.30 0.30 0.30 404 350 593 135 404 674 350 593 404 Vacuum (mbar) Sub-atmospheric Daw apple (%) 0.71 0.79 0.60 0.79 1.19 1.88 0.79 0.89 0.99 Daw melon (%) 0.10 0.50 0.40 0.20 0.60 0.60 0.81 0.91 0.70 Daw mango (%) 0.10 0.30 0.51 0.61 0.30 0.61 0.30 0.61 0.20

Daw ((aw of fresh fruit aw of osmodehydrated fruit)/aw of fresh fruit) 100.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the economical support of the Universidad de las Am ericas-Puebla, of the European Union (Project TS3*-CT-94-0333) and the n Ignacio Zaragoza of CONASistema de Investigacio CYT M exico (Project no. 96010202-2), as well as the commentaries and recommendations of Dr. Pedro Fito M. for this work.

References
AOAC (1984). Ocial methods of analysis (14th ed.). Washington, DC: Association of Ocial Analytical Chemists. Andr es, A. (1995). Impregnaci on a vac o en alimentos porosos. Aplicaci on al salado de quesos. Ph.D. Thesis. Universidad Polit ecnica de Valencia, Spain. Andr es, A., Prado, P., Fito, P., & Chiralt, A. (1994). Structural changes in porous foods during vacuum impregnation process. In  pez-Malo, E. Palou, & P. Corte (Eds.), ProceedA. Argaiz, A. Lo ings of the poster session. International symposium on the properties of water. Practicum II. Mexico: UDLA-Puebla, pp. 1821. Barat, J. M. E., Chiralt, A., & Fito, P. (1998). Equilibrium in cellular food osmotic solution systems as related to structure. Journal of Food Science, 63(5), 836840. Cornell, J. A. (1990). How to apply response surface methodology (pp. 5156). Milwaukee, WI: American Society for Quality Control. D avila, L. A., Fito, P., & Pensaben, M. (1993). Modelo emp rico para n osmo tica a vac la transferencia de masa en la deshidratacio o de Manguifera indica. In P. Fito, J. Serra, E. Hern andez, & D. Vidal (Eds.), Anales de investigaci on del master en ciencia e ingenier a de alimentos (vol. III, pp. 525543). Spain: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad Polit ecnica de Valencia. Design Expert (1996). Stat-Ease Corporation, Minneapolis. Fito, P., & Chiralt, A. (1994). An update on vacuum osmotic dehydration. In G. Barbosa-C anovas & J. Welti-Chanes (Eds.), ISOPOW Practicum II. food preservation by moisture control. Lancaster, PA: Technomic Pub. Co. Inc. Fito, P., & Pastor, R. (1994). On some non-diusional mechanism occurring during vacuum osmotic dehydration. Journal of Food Science, 21, 319513. Fito, P., Andr es, A., Chiralt, A., & Pardo, P. (1996). Coupling of hydrodynamic mechanism and deformationrelaxation phenomena during vacuum treatments in solid porous food liquid systems. Journal of Food Engineering, 27, 229240.

Fig. 4. Correlation between WL and sugar gain of apple, melon, and mango at atmospheric (a) and sub-atmospheric (b) conditions.

4. Conclusions The eect of the vacuum pressure and OS concentration of the sugar syrup could be explained by the response surface experimental design and by WL, SG and WR values. However, structural and microscopic studies are required to have a clearer explanation of what happens inside the fruit. To formulate minimally processed fruits with high aw , the application of VI-VOD seemed to be advantageous compared to AOD process, particularly in the case of fruits with high porosity levels, such as apple.

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