Drying Modelling, Moisture Diffusivity and Sensory quality of Thin Layer dried Beef

Eunice Akello Mewa^1*, Michael Wandayi Okoth¹, Catherine Nkirote Kunyanga¹, Musa Njue Rugiri²

¹Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology, University of Nairobi, Kenya
²Department of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Egerton University, Kenya.
Corresponding Author Email: eunicemewa@yahoo.com

The objective of the present study was to determine the drying kinetics, moisture diffusivity and sensory quality of convective air dried beef. The effect of temperature of drying (30-60°C) and thickness of samples (2.5-10 mm) on the convective thin-layer drying kinetics of beefdried in a cabinet dryer was evaluated. Five semi-theoretical models were fit to the drying experimentaldata with the aim of predicting drying characteristics of beef and fitting quality of models determined using the standard error of estimate (SEE)and coefficient of determination (R2). Determination ofeffective moisture diffusivity (Deff) from the experimental drying datawas done and sensory quality of the optimized dried cooked and uncookedbeef samplesevaluated. Drying time and rate of drying increased with an increasing temperature but decreased with increased slice thickness. However, there was overlapping of drying curves at 40-50°C. Among the selected models, Page model gave the best prediction of beef drying characteristics. Effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) ranged between 4.2337 x 10-11 and 5.5899 x 10-10 m2/s, increasing with an increase in air temperature and beef slice thickness.Of all the sensory parameters evaluated, texture was the only attribute that gave significantly different (P > 0.05) scores between the cooked and uncooked dried beef samples.

Beef slice thickness; Drying temperature; Mathematical modelling; Moisture diffusivity; Sensory quality.

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