Effect of Temperature Variation by Forced Air Dryer on Solar Drying of Okra

摘要

Drying is the traditional and oldest method of processing okra to reduce the water activity and improve the keeping quality. Drying may be achieved by sun or using a hot-air oven. Dehydrated foods and the dried components of many formulated or manufactured foods are now common articles of commerce and drying is becoming a standard processing operation. Its technology is now rather well-defined and it is carried out in well tested types and sizes of equipment to produce billions of pounds of dry product annually.This research was conducted to compare different drying techniques forced air drying, solar drying and sun drying. There was rapid drop in moisture content in the forced air-drying method that the two other drying method. At 24 hours of drying time it was recorded that forced air dryer has 16% moisture content and solar dryer has 23% while sun drying recorded 35%. The comparison made on the forced air dryer at 50?C, 70?C, and 90?C indicated that 90?C has highest drying rate with faster reduction in the moisture content.