International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Manisha Arote, Pramodini More and Amruta Kumbhar

abstract
Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is a major root vegetable grown all over the world for its delicious taste and significant nutritional value. Being rich in beta-carotene, carrots offer many health benefits. Carrots are seasonal and are perishable in nature due to high water content. Drying is one of most prominent preservation techniques to reduce the higher moisture from the fresh fruit and vegetable. Osmotic dehydration followed by convective drying helps in keeping the better quality of final dehydrated fruit and vegetable based product. Overall acceptability and mass transfer parameter during osmotic dehydration depends upon the size of sample. Hence Osmo-convectively dehydrated carrot shreds were prepared by varying the size of carrot shreds. The mass transfer parameters, colour, and texture (Hardness) were determined to study the influence of size of shreds on quality of osmo-dehydrated carrot shreds. Mass transfer parameters such as weight reduction, water loss and sugar gain increased with decrease in size of shreds. There was reduction in a* value with increase in size of shreds while decreasing trend was observed in L* and b* value of osmo-dehydrated carrot shreds. Hardness is not much affected by the varying shreds sizes of osmo-dehydrated carrot shreds. Osmo-convectively dehydrated carrot shreds with medium size obtained good overall sensory acceptance.