title: Effect of different drying technologies on drying characteristics and quality of red pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.): a comparative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hot air drying and sun drying are traditional drying technologies widely used in the drying of agricultural products for a long time, but usually recognized as time-consuming or producing lower-quality products. Infrared drying is a rather effective drying technology that has advantages over traditional drying technologies. Thus, in order to investigate the application of infrared drying in the dehydration of red pepper, the drying characteristics and quality of infrared-dried red pepper were compared with those of sun-dried and hot air-dried red pepper.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The infrared drying technology significantly enhanced the drying rate when compared with hot air drying and sun drying. Temperature was the most important factor affecting the moisture transfer during the process of infrared drying as well as hot air drying. Effective moisture diffusivity (Deff ) values of infrared drying ranged from 1.58 × 10(-9) to 3.78 × 10(-9) m(2) s(-1) . The Ea values of infrared drying and hot air drying were 42.67 and 44.48 kJ mol(-1) respectively. Infrared drying and hot air drying produced color loss to a similar extent. Relatively higher crispness values were observed for infrared-dried samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sun drying produced dried red pepper with the best color when compared with hot air drying and infrared drying. Meanwhile, infrared drying markedly improved the drying rate at the same drying temperature level of hot air drying, and the products obtained had relatively better quality with higher crispness values. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Zhen
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Lin-Yan
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Qin-Qin
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Ye
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100193, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Kai
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Beijing Vocational College of Agriculture, Beijing 102442, China.
authors.forename: Shu-Rong
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002212:Capsicum / Q000737:chemistry*; D003116:Color; D003890:Desiccation / Q000379:methods*; D005519:Food Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D005638:Fruit; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007259:Infrared Rays; D013472:Sunlight
keywords: color; drying characteristics; effective moisture diffusivity; infrared drying; texture