STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF IR RADIATION ON THE DRYING PROCESS OF MELON SHEETS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the technology of drying melon slices and intensification of this process.

 It is known that many fruits and agricultural products are pre-processed before the drying process.  These include blanching, sulfitation, fumigation, or electrophysical methods of exposure: microwave generation, IR irradiation, etc. [1].  All these methods to one degree or another intensify the process and reduce the drying time of products.

 In order to reduce the drying time, improve the appearance and taste of dried melon, taking into account the specific properties of the melon as an object of drying, the conditions for preparing it for the dehydration process, the choice of a particular drying method and the design of the drying unit, we have carried out experimental studies to study the effect of IR - irradiation on the process of drying annular melon slices.  The specified drying method is disclosed in work [2] and is recommended for implementation in the farms of the Republic of Uzbekistan. For research, we have developed an experimental setup (Fig. 1)