Department of Post Harvest Technology of Horticultural Crops, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, 741252, India.
Key words: Cauliflower, pretreatment, drying temperature, quality, dehydration.
Journal of Applied Horticulture, 2014, volume 16, issue 1, pages 71-75.
Abstract: Cauliflower curd were pre-treated with hot water blanching + 0.125% KMS, with/without microwave blanching for 5 minutes and were dehydrated at three levels of temperature viz., 65, 60 and 55 oC at different treatment combinations. Considering the dehydration characters and quality after dehydration and storage it was found that T2 (hot water blanching + 0.125% KMS + microwave blanching + drying at 65 oC) was the best treatment followed by T4 (hot water blanching + 0.125% KMS + microwave blanching + drying at 60 oC) and T5 (hot water blanching + 0.125% KMS + drying at 55 oC). In T2, time taken for complete dehydration (445 minutes) and moisture content (3.62%) was least. Further, the moisture content after 6 month of storage was also less (9.63%), drying rate (135.74%) and dehydration ratio (10.70) was medium after dehydration. Ascorbic acid retention was maximum during storage in the treatment. Sensory evaluation also supported the superiority of this treatment.
