Publication Details
Abstract
Considering their shelf stability, nutritional importance, and export potential, the dried fruit products are growing in significance within the global food systems. As one of the main processing methods, the evaluation of technological characteristics in apple drying, such as size, hardness and dry matter content, is crucial to ensure the quality and efficiency of the resulting product. Although some studies have been conducted, there are still no standard benchmarks to determine the technological adequacy of some apple varieties for drying, especially in the area of the relationship between physicochemical properties and drying results. Therefore, the objective of this study is to better the drying technology through analysis of technological characteristics and biochemical composition of different apple varieties and factors affecting the quality of dried product. Results show that dry matter content, fruit hardness, and size are of significant importance for drying efficacy and subsequent quality of the products, for instance, Saratoni had the maximum dry matter content (14.0%) whereas Rozmarin belyy showed the maximum hardness (7.7 kg/cm²) which leads to larger structural retention. On the other hand, dried forms of genotypes with low dry matter content showed lower quality. The research details several apple varieties tested under the same drying conditions and emphasizes that maximal efficiency is determined by a synergism of many techno-productive traits rather than a useful trait alone. This work indicates that careful choice of varieties and optimization of drying parameters may minimize losses, increase economic efficiency and even contribute to high-value, export-oriented semi-finished product production.