Secagem e caracterização do resíduo de morango (Fragaria x ananassa Duch)

Abstract

The agricultural and food sector throw away billions of tons of food that could be destined for human consumption. Companies in these sectors, aiming to reduce the environmental impact and waste, have been investing in the use of waste. Agro industries that process fruit generate nutritionally rich residues that can be used in various ways, even reducing operating costs. The residues have high humidity and must be subjected to conservation methods for their best use. Heat treatments are used to form powders and flours according to the desired application. Researches for nutritional analysis of fruit residue are increasing, but the literature does not present data to produce powders from processed strawberry residues. This fruit has great potential to produce powders and extracts rich in bioactive compounds. The objective of this work is to investigate the drying of strawberry residue by different methods such as Cast-tape drying (CTD), Freeze-drying (FD) and Convective drying (CD), in search of the best operational conditions and most appropriate methods with the benefit of preserving nutritional properties and effective use for industrial application of by product. Strawberry residue was characterized by analyzing moisture, hygroscopicity, color, water activity and particle size distribution analyses. As results obtained, the color of the freeze-dried powder is notable for maintaining the a* parameter close to that of the in natura. It was possible to dry the residue in the three different drying methods, thus maintaining good bioactive properties. The characterization of the powdered residue indicated that there is a possibility of applications of the powder, enabling preservation with possible commercial chances and good quality.