Lab Report: Dehydration of Fruit to Determine

Moisture Content
Food Science
Ms. Natamon Rittilertnapa

Peemmawat Sattavacharavech

G1001
Group members:
Peemmawat Sattavacharavech (Peem) 6161106
(Pai) (Path)

28.11.2018
Introduction
Every food we eat contain some liquid in it. And the measure of
the percentage of the water in food is called percent moisture.
Dehydrating the food can help determining the percent moisture. It can
be determined by having [(the initial mass of a food) – (the mass after
dehydration)] divide by initial mass and multiply the result by 100 to
get it in percentage.
In this experiment, we will be determining the percent moisture in
a fruit of our choice, which in this case, is banana. And we will be
tasting the fruit before and after dehydration as well, just to know the
difference.

Group member Mass of sample Mass of sample Moisture content

before dehydration after dehydration in percentage
Peem 3 6.19 g 1.62 g 71.83%
Pai 2 6.99 g 1.71 g 74.54%
Path 1 4.15 g 1.02 g 75.42%
In CM Before Dehydration After Dehydration
1 2 3 1 2 3
Length 2 2 2 1.5 1.7 1
Height 1.5 2 1.5 1.5 1.3 1.3
Width 2 2 2 1 1.3 1.5

Group Member Comments

Peem The banana before dehydration taste and smell like
normal banana, and is definitely wet, soft, and
sweet, the size is larger than it after dehydrated.
After the dehydration process it becomes darker in
color, hard, dried, and a lot sweeter.
Pai The banana before dehydration tastes and smells
like normal banana. Its texture was slippery, fine,
and slimy. After dehydration the banana smell
become sweeter like toffee. The color become
darker. The taste have become sweeter. The texture
was crunchy on the outside but tuff and sticky from
the inside and it had shrink and wither.

Path The banana before dehydration taste normal and

the texture is soft, and have some moisture. The
banana after dehydration is a lot drier, sweeter,
crunchier, and yummier.
Why is the sample not completely dry? Why some dry more efficiently
than others?
Some pieces of fruit might not be completely dried in the center, and
there might be some capillary water or bound water kept inside the
fruit still. Some fruit that have bulk water are easily dehydrated, and
some might be so thick that the dehydration process can’t dry out the
fruit completely especially the center.

Why might we want to be careful with dried fruit we purchase? Are

they all heathy?
Many dried fruits on the market are added with sugar. Dried fruits are
also high is carbohydrates. So eating dried fruit too much can make you
gain weight. But eating it as a snack is a better option instead of chips.
So by all means, a too much of something is not always good.

Conclusion
The results of the banana after dehydration are as follow. The
texture of the banaba was dried, hardened. The taste is sweeter and
have a stronger smell. Through this lab, we learned how to calculate
the percent moisture content of an object, which in this case is our
banana. We also learned many other skills such as communication and
time managing.