OPTIMIZATION

OF THE OSMOTIC
DEHYDRATION
OF POTATO AND
YAM SLICES
 OUTLINE

BACKGROUND STATEMENT OF AIM AND SIGNIFICANCE

OF STUDY PROBLEM OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

SCOPE OF STUDY LITERATURE METHODOLOGY

REVIEW
 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
• Potato is a starchy tuber of the plant Solanum
Tuberesome which are edible and available worldwide.
They are relatively cheap to grow, rich in nutrient and
can make can a delicious treat.
• Yams are multispecies and vegetative propagated tuber
crops cultivated widely in the tropics (FAO 2002).
Over 90% of the world yam production occurs in the
yam belt of West and Central Africa, with Nigeria
alone accounting for about 68% of the World’s total
production (Sobukola 2007).
• Osmotic dehydration is the removal of water from the
lower concentration of solute to higher concentration
through semi permeable membrane which results in the
equilibrium condition in both sides of the membrane
(Tiwari 2005).
 About 20-40% of potato
and yam production goes
to waste due to lack of
STATEMENT adequate storage capacity
OF and moisture retention.
This brings the question of
PROBLEM ‘how can potato and yam
be preserved to avoid
waste?’.
 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is To optimize the To investigate the effect To derive a quadratic
to evaluate the effect of dehydration of the food of process variables model of mixture
the osmotic solution on materials. such as thickness, time removal for the process.
the potato and yam and concentration on
slices. The following the effect percentage
objectives shall be moisture removal.
pursued in the course of
this study;
 SIGNIFICANCE OF
STUDY
This study will help to discover the best way to
which potato and yam slices will be dehydrated
using osmotic agents such as salt. It is also
important because weight measurement will be
taken before and after soaking the food material in
the osmotic agent and the difference in weight
taken. This study will draw attention to amount of
moisture gained while soaking and also the
amount of moisture lost after dehydration.
SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this
study will be a
laboratory scale
dehydration of potato
and yam slices using
salt solution as the
osmotic agent under
controlled conditions
of time and the size of
food material.
LITERATURE REVIEW
• Mehdia Mihoubi and Ali Ferradji(2015) did a
study on the optimization of osmotic
dehydration of potato slices in sugar solution
using Response surface methodology (RSM) to
determine the optimum processing conditions
that yield maximum water loss (WL), weight
reduction (WR) and minimum solid gain (SG).
• Mokhtar et al.( 2019) did a study on the
dehydration of potato slices following brief
dipping in osmotic solutions in order to allow
the osmotic medium to occlude to the surface of
the slices, holding the slice under ambient
conditions.
 MATERIALS AND METHOD
Materials
The potato (sweet) and yam that will be used
for this study will be obtained from Use Offot
market, Uyo in Akwa Ibom state. Also,
salt(NaCl) will be gotten from the market for
the preparation of the osmotic agent.
Methodology
The potato and yam slices will be immersed
into the osmotic solution which ranges from
10 – 30% in concentration to determine the
water loss and salt content gained.
Optimization of this process will be carried
out using RSM (Response Surface
Methodology).
Preparation • The potato and yam tuber will be washed with clean
water, peeled manually and cut into slices of

Of The dimensions ( 2 – 10mm) using a very sharp stainless

steel knife. The slices will be rinsed immediately in
clean water for about 1 min to remove surface starch
Potato And and other substances sticking to the surface of the
slices. Finally, the surface water will be eliminated by
Yam Slices using a moistened towel.

Preparation
Of The • The osmotic solution will be obtained by dissolving
commercial NaCl in water. The concentration of the
Osmotic solution will be from 10 – 30%.

Solution
Osmotic Dehydration Treatment
The potato and yam slices would be divided into the
pretreated sample and the untreated sample. The slices
to be treated will be soaked in the osmotic solution of
different concentration of 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%,and
30%.The slices will be removed from the solution at 20,
40, 60, 80 and 100 minutes after immersion, drained, and
the excess of solution on the surface will be removed with
absorbent paper.
Oven Drying
The treated and untreated sample will be subjected to
moisture analysis as the sample will be weighed and
placed in single layers on pre-weighed drying trays, and
there after loaded into the oven. The sampled will be
taken out for weighing after every 30 mins to determine
the moisture loss until a constant weight is obtained.
Then the treated and untreated samples will be
compared.
Mathematical models For Drying
Different authors have come up with various
mathematical models used for drying. Some of
those models can be seen in the table below.

Model Name Model References

Lewis MR=exp(-kt) Westerman et al.(1973)

Henderson and Pabis MR=a exp(-kt) Yagcioglu et al. (1999)

Logarithmic MR=a exp(-kt)+c Yaldiz and Ertekein (2001)

Page MR=exp (-kt^n) Page (1949)

Simplified Fick’s Diffusion MR=a exp(-kt)+c Celma et al. (2007)

Drying Kinetics
Drying kinetics is the representation of the drying
rates versus the drying time or the moisture
content. It is a graphical representation of the
evolution of the moisture content.
The above chosen models will be tested on each
data to determine their fitness. The model with the
best fit will be selected as that describing the
drying process, drying rate and other parameters
will then be determined from the selected models.
The effect of treatments in the osmotic solution on
the drying behavior will then be examined.