Effects of drying methods on color retention and chlorophyll of celery (ApiumgraveolensL.), spinach (Spinacia oleraceaL.), Malabar spinach (Basella albaL.)
Dried vegetables are considered convenient for storage, transportation and preservation. The different drying techniques could influence the quality of resulting products. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of three distinguish drying methods as hot-air drying, foam-mat drying and microwave drying on the color retention and chlorophyll of green vegetables powder. Fresh spinach(Spinacia oleraceaL.), celery (Apium graveolensL.), Malabar spinach (Basella albaL.) were dried by different methods: hot air at 60oC, foam-mat at 60oC and microwave at 270 W until the samples reached approximately 9% of moisture content (wb). The drying time of the dried samples by microwave, foam-mat and hot-air method were 60, 210 and 240 min, respectively. Foam-mat dried vegetables were found to have the best quality in terms of color and the residual chlorophyll content. The findings suggest that foam-mat drying is promising in dried vegetable processing