Revista de Processamento e Tecnologia de Alimentos

Abstrato

Studying the Thin Layer Drying Kinetics of African Giant Snail (Achatina achatina)

Egbe E.W*, Tariebi K, Okosemiefa M.R, Nwangwu U, Akpan F.A

African Giant Snail (Achatina achatina) is eaten after eviscerating the flesh from the shell and separating the edible part from the other viscera in a dried or semi-dried state, in the coastal area where they are predominately available. Drying is a veritable technology for its storage beyond immediate consumption. This study thus, studied the Thin Layer Drying Kinetics of African Giant Snail (Achatina achatina). A laboratory convective oven dryer was used as the heating source, on temperature range of 60°C-100? applied in a varying manner on multiples of 10?. The layer thickness was about 0.013-m. The drying profile showed a typical falling rate period with no distinct constant rate period for all the temperature levels used in this work. Moisture loss (diffusion) data obtained from the experiments were fitted to four popular empirical thin-layer models of ANN, Page, Lewis, and Henderson-Pabis, respectively, and their suitability was validated using statistical parameters (of R₂, RMSE and χ²). This was done to select thin-layer model that would suitably describe the drying kinetics of the samples over the range of temperature levels chosen in this work. Consequently, the ANN and that of Henderson-Pabis respectively were taken to have reliably predicted the drying behaviour of the samples at the chosen temperature levels. The effective diffusivity and the temperature-related activation energy values ranged from 2.191m²/min × 10^-10m²/min-8.219m²/min × 10^-11m²/min and 22.5kJ/mol, respectively. Drying rates along with characterizing drying constants and curves also showed an exponential increase with temperature.