The Effect of Pre-Treatment on the Rehydration of Dried Apple Cube

Abstract

The subject of the research was a comparative analysis of the rehydration process of dried apples in cubic form. Cubes of dried Idared apples were subjected to various pre-treatment processes, including steam blanching, microwave heating and osmotic dehydration in a sucrose solution. The pre-treatment was followed by a convection drying process conducted using two different drying systems. The rehydration process was carried out at a water temperature of 20 °C for 150 min. Rehydration kinetics, instantaneous increments in rehydrate mass and the relative and absolute moisture content of rehydrated samples were analyzed based on the tests. The rehydration process rates were also determined. It was observed that osmotic drying in a 10% sucrose solution reduced the rehydration process of dried apples by up to 32%.

1. Introduction

The majority of dried products (dry mixes, soups, fruits, vegetables, and nuts) are rehydrated during use to restore the properties of the raw food product, most often with water, juice, milk or its derivatives [1,2,3], and the speed of this process depends precisely on the type of rehydrating liquid [4,5]. It can be assumed that during the described process, the following processes take place simultaneously: absorption, swelling of the rehydrated material and leaching of dissolved substances (vitamins, minerals, sugars or acids) from the product into the rehydration medium [6]. A fast and complete rehydration process can result in lower labor costs, storage space requirements and improved production efficiency [7,8].

Pre-drying treatment, drying and rehydration cause changes in the structure and composition of the product tissue, resulting in a deterioration of the reconstructive properties, so it can be said that the ability of the dried product to absorb water is the main indicator of the correctness of the drying process [9,10,11]. As a result, a better understanding of the process in question can lead to an improvement in the quality of both dry and rehydrated products [12,13].

Analyzing the studies carried out, it can be seen that the rehydration process depends on the drying method and parameters, as well as on the previous pretreatment of the material [13,14,15,16,17,18] and the internal damage to the structure of the materials [19,20]. The chemical composition of the product, its microstructure [21,22,23,24], the way the rehydration is carried out and the external conditions [25,26] are also not without significance. Rehydration can therefore be regarded as a measure of the degree of change occurring during processing but cannot be regarded as a reverse process to dehydration, as the changes in material structure are irreversible [10,27,28].

For a conventional drying process, the mode of heat delivery (convective, contact, sublimation, radiation, dielectric), the nature of the process (intermittent, continuous), the physical form of the material being dried and the operating conditions (atmospheric pressure, vacuum) [29] are important, including the way in which the fruit and vegetables are cut [21,30,31].

A number of scientific articles can be found in the literature, in which researchers have presented the results of their research related to the rehydration of dried foods. For example, the work of Severini et al. [32] consisted of a study of the effects of different combined blanching and dehydration systems on the kinetics of mass transfer mechanisms during the rehydration of diced potatoes. Blanching was alternatively carried out in hot distilled water, hot sugar–salt solution, microwaved in distilled water or microwaved in salt solution. The authors stated, that in terms of process speed, color retention and water absorption capacity, the best results were obtained by combining microwave blanching with dehydration on the belt drier. In particular, dehydration on the belt drier leveled eventual negative effects as determined by the blanching treatments. Doymaz and Sahin [13] studied the effect of pretreatment (citric acid solution, blanching by immersion in hot water) on the rehydration characteristics of broccoli, and they found that drying and rehydration characteristics of broccoli slices were influenced by air temperature and pre-treatment. Kocabay and Ismail [33] study rehydration kinetics of open-sun-dried okra, which dried naturally, and pre-treatment was investigated at 25 and 50 °C. In dehydration experiments, the authors determined that blanching pre-treatment has an influence on the drying time, and okra samples were dried by 18 h. On the contrary, in rehydration experiments maximum equilibrium rehydration values were achieved with the okras dried naturally. Rafiq et al. [34] conducted a study to correlate hydration behavior with the processing conditions of low-amylose parboiled rice, which was dried at temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 °C. They then examined the rehydration characteristics of parboiled rice (dehusked only) at soaking temperatures of 30, 40 and 50 °C for up to 3 h at 30 min intervals, subsequently determining the equilibrium moisture content during rehydration. The obtained data were tested against three hydration equations: Peleg, exponential, and Weibull. The results indicated that the Weibull model provided a better fit than the exponential model and Peleg’s equation. The authors also described water transfer into the dehusked grains using Fick’s diffusion model and calculated the moisture diffusivity, which ranged from 1.06 to 4 × 10⁻¹¹ m²/s. Giri and Prasad [35] investigated the effect of convective and microwave–vacuum drying on the rehydration of mushrooms. They studied the impact of drying parameters (microwave power (115–285 W), system pressure (6.5–23.5 kPa) and product thickness (6–14 mm)) as well as drying temperature (50, 60 and 70 °C) on drying kinetics and rehydration characteristics. According to the authors, microwave–vacuum drying reduced drying time by 70–90%, and the dried products exhibited better rehydration properties compared to convective air drying. Additionally, system pressure had a significant effect on the rehydration ratio.

The impact of microwave pre-drying and explosion puff drying on the physicochemical properties, texture, microstructure and rehydration of pitaya fruit chips was studied by Yi et al. [36]. The authors demonstrated that chips dried using microwave drying (1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 W/g) and explosion puff drying exhibited faster rehydration rates. Vega-Gálvez et al. [37] dried peppers (Lamuyo variety) at four different inlet air temperatures ranging from 50 to 80 °C and rehydrated the dried samples in water at 30 °C to examine the effect of drying temperature on the quality and microstructural properties of the rehydrated tissue. Additionally, they investigated the impact of pretreating the samples (soaking them in NaCl, CaCl₂ and Na₂S₂O₅ solutions) before drying at 70 °C. The study results indicated that the best product quality was achieved when the samples were pretreated before drying. Microscopic analysis of the rehydrated pepper samples suggested that cellular structure damage was minimized by the pretreatment, and the rehydrated peppers showed relatively better vitamin C retention, color and firmness. Rhim et al. [38] investigated the effect of freezing temperature on the quality properties of freeze-dried rice porridge at different temperatures. The authors observed that slow freezing resulted in a porous freeze-dried rice porridge with large pores and a more brittle structure compared to rapid freezing. They concluded that all the quality properties examined were significantly influenced by both the freezing temperature and the evaluation temperature. Both the initial rehydration ratio and the dissolution time of the freeze-dried rice porridge decreased with increasing water temperature. The ability of foods to absorb liquids also depends on the chemical composition of the material [39]; Markowski et al. [40] studied the effect of six carrot varieties on the water absorption of dried carrots. They found that variety had a significant effect on the rehydration process; Kaptso et al. [41] studied the kinetics of rehydration of cowpea and bambara seeds, and the differences observed in the rehydration process emphasized varietal and species differences; Ciurzanska et al. [42] studied the rehydration of vacuum-dried strawberries and aimed to investigate the effect of variety on properties. Analysis of the effect of strawberry cultivar on rehydration showed that fruit of the Bounty cultivar achieved a higher final water content after one hour of holding in water compared to the Pandora cultivar. Increasing the fruit diameter from 24 to 27 mm resulted in an increase in water content after rehydration, but only for the Bounty variety. The opposite effect was obtained for the Pandora variety. It was shown that fresh fruit subjected to vacuum drying achieved almost five times lower water content after 1 h of rehydration than fruit dried after thawing.

This research is the second part of the issue of the comparative analysis of the pre-treatment impact of the Idared variety dried apples and the geometric properties of the raw material on the rehydration capacity. A previous article [6] contains the results of experiments on the effect of pre-treatment on the rehydration properties of dried fruit in the form of apple slices. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of pretreating cubic samples of Idared apples before drying, as well as the drying method used, on the rehydration capacity of the dried fruit in water at 20 °C.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Sample Preparation

Fresh Idared apples were stored in a refrigerator at 4 °C for one day after purchase before beginning the study. Prior to drying, the apples were rinsed with fresh water, and the cores were removed. After peeling, the apples were cut into cubes using a shredder, with a volume of 1 cm³ and a linear dimension of a = 10 mm ± 0.1 mm. The dry matter content of the raw material averaged 16.12% (m·m⁻¹). Fresh, untreated cubes served as the comparison material.

Figure 1 contains a diagram of the experiment procedure.

2.2. Drying Procedure

Before the drying process, some of the samples underwent the following treatments:

(a)

Blanching in steam for 60 s,

(b)

Microwave heating for 30 s at 600 W,

(c)

Osmotic dehydration in a 10% sugar solution (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁)_n (molecular weight 342.3)_n, g mol⁻¹ at 20.0 °C for 24 h. The osmotic pressure of the solution was π = 0.715 × 10³ hPa.

After carrying out the initial treatments, the material was weighed with an accuracy of ±0.001 g (WPE-300 RADWAG Krakow, Poland) and dried in a convection dryer at the temperature of 80.0 °C ± 5.0 °C. The raw material was placed in single layers on the shelves of the dryers. The drying process was carried out until a constant mass was reached using two types of dryers: with forced air circulation (drying agent flow rate 1.5 m·s⁻¹) and without air circulation. After completing the drying process, the weight measurements were repeated.

The water content in the rehydrated sample was determined as the mass of water to the mass of dry substance determined for the tested material at the temperature of 105 °C. On the basis of the tests, the rehydration rate curves were determined, defined as the amount of water supplied to the raw material with a known area per unit of time under steady-state conditions, at a temperature of 20.0 °C ± 1.0 °C. The rehydration properties were determined by the relative mass gain. The kinetics of the rehydration process was investigated after 150 min, with a step in time every 10 min. Samples were each drawn from water every 10 min, blotted and weighed. To determine the amount of water absorbed, the evaluation of changes in the absolute moisture content of the dried material over time was used, determining the degree of rehydration R(t). A relative mass gain was determined from the following dependence [6,43]:

$$\delta m={\displaystyle \frac{m\left({\tau }_i\right)-m\left({\tau }_0\right)}{m\left({\tau }_0\right)}}$$

(1)

where m(τ_i)—mass at a given moment, g; m(τ₀)—initial mass, g.

2.3. Rehydration Procedure

Rehydration experiments were conducted in thirty repetitions by immersing a pre-weighed dried apple cube in distilled water at a temperature of 20 °C. The rehydration process lasted 150 min. To study the rehydration kinetics, the cubes were removed from the rehydration solution every 10 min, covered with blotting paper for 30 s to remove surface water, weighed and then re-immersed.

3. Results and Discussion

Rehydration is a complex process of moisturizing dried products, which, due to the physical and chemical changes that occur, cannot be considered a reversed drying process. As Lewicki et al. [44] states, rehydration can be seen as a measure of material damage caused by both preliminary processing and the drying process itself. In rehydrated agricultural and food products, the water mass and its absorption rate are critical factors influencing sensory properties and the preparation time of the final product. Therefore, the rehydration properties of dried products serve as quality indicators and reflect the physical and chemical changes occurring during drying [44,45,46].

The increase in the mass of rehydrated dried material at the temperature of 20.0 °C ± 1.0 °C was the highest for the material obtained in the process of convection drying in a dryer with forced air circulation (Figure 2a,b). The description of symbols used in the graphs throughout the study is presented in

Table 1. Description of symbols used in the graphs.

Dried Samples With Air Circulation	Dried Samples Without Air Circulation
“KBOWZ”—mass of rehydrate—without pre-treatment	“KBOWZ–”—rehydrate mass—without pre-treatment
“KBWZ”—mass of rehydrate—blanching	“KBWZ–”—mass of rehydrate—blanching
“KMWZ”—mass of rehydrate—microwave drying	“KMWZ–”—mass of rehydrate—microwave drying
“KRWZ”—mass of rehydrate—osmotic drying	“KRWZ–”—mass of rehydrate—osmotic drying

. Samples dried in a dryer without refrigerant circulation rehydrated slower. The difference in the water absorption process for samples dried with and without air circulation varied on average from 8% to 26%. The influence of the drying method, temperature and drying agent velocity on the physical properties of dried products, and consequently on their rehydration properties, has been the subject of numerous studies [37,46,47]. As noted by Beigi [48], the degree of hydration of hot-air-dried apple slices increased with higher drying temperatures. The hydration of products dried at high temperatures is better due to the effect of temperature on cell walls and tissues. The rate of heat transfer between the heat source and the material is higher at elevated temperatures, leading to faster moisture evaporation and shorter drying times [49,50,51]. This results in tissue disintegration and cell damage occurring at higher temperatures, causing greater water uptake in spaces formed by damaged cells and thus increasing the rehydration rate [37,46,47,48]. The processes of earlier treatment had an impact on the dynamics of water absorption mainly for the material dried without air circulation. No significant effect on the amount and the rate of water adsorption was observed in the case of samples dried in an air-circulating dryer without pre-treatment or those previously subjected to blanching or microwave heating. In this case, the only type of treatment that mattered was the osmotic drying process. It lowered the water absorption by an average of 32% compared to samples not subjected to any treatment before drying.

The mass–time curve was approximated according to Formula (2):

$$\eta \left(m,\tau \right)=1-exp\left[-b\left(m\right)·{\tau }^{n\left(m\right)}\right]$$

(2)

in which b and n can be determined by the experimental data of isothermal phase transformation. From Equation (1), $\eta \left(m,\tau \right)$

In the case of b and n, the values can be determined from the experimental data of Figure 2a. From Equation (2), η(m,τ) is a function of mass and time. According to [52] b and n were approximated by polynomials, i.e.,

$$\mathit{log}b=C_0+C_{1}m+C_2{m}^2+C_3{m}^3$$

(3)

$${n=D_0+D}_{1}m+D_2{m}^2+D_3{m}^3$$

(4)

The constants ${\mathrm{C}}_0$ and ${\mathrm{D}}_0$ were determined by the diagram in Figure 2a and minimum quadrate method, and are listed in

Table 2. The constants in Equations (3) and (4).

	${\mathit{C}}_0$	${\mathit{C}}_1$	${\mathit{C}}_2$	${\mathit{C}}_3$	${\mathit{D}}_0$	${\mathit{D}}_1$	${\mathit{D}}_2$	${\mathit{D}}_3$
KBOWZ	−3.02 × 10−2	−1.87 × 10−1	−6.46 × 10−3	−1.09 × 10−5	3.51	4.01 × 10−1	4.46 × 10−3	3.85 × 10−6
KBWZ	−2.78 × 10−3	−6.40 × 10−2	−1.83 × 10−2	−9.05 × 10−5	2.52	6.62 × 10−1	1.70 × 10−2	3.91 × 10−5
KMWZ	−1.06 × 10−2	−6.08 × 10−2	−1.84 × 10−2	−8.70 × 10−5	2.38	6.66 × 10−1	1.69 × 10−2	3.73 × 10−5
KRWZ	−6.08 × 10−2	−1.31 × 10−1	−1.27 × 10−2	−5.54 × 10−5	2.96	5.49 × 10−1	1.12 × 10−2	2.38 × 10−5

.

Considering in detail the differences in the drying method, the material of the samples without pretreatment slightly differed in the rehydrate mass increase over time due to the type of dryers used for its production, which can be seen in Figure 3a. Significant changes in the weight gain of the rehydrate were observed in the samples that were blanched before the drying process. The material blanched and dried with the air flow in the dryer was characterized by a greater weight gain than the material blanched but dried in the dryer without the circulation of the thermodynamic medium (Figure 3b). A similar differentiation is visible in the graph in Figure 3c concerning the pre-treatment, which was microwave pre-drying. The smallest differences, depending on the technology of the process of obtaining the dried material, were visible in the diagrams concerning the treatment of the raw material osmotic drying. For the above case, drying in an air flow drier was characterized by a greater increase in rehydrate weight (Figure 3d). Confirmation of these observations can be found in the work of Winiczenko et al. [53], who studied the effect of drying parameters and methods on the increase in volume of dried apple slices and cubes of the Ligol variety during rehydration in distilled water at 20 °C. The study showed that both particle size and drying method influenced the increase in volume of dried apples during rehydration. According to the authors, the final volume of rehydrated dried apples increased as the drying temperature decreased.

The decrease in the increase in the absolute mass of the rehydrate (the reciprocal of the mass ratio of the rehydrate in time to the initial mass of the dried material), within 50 min of the process, is characterized by a greater gradient in the case of samples dried in a dryer without air circulation compared to samples dried in a dryer with air circulation (Figure 4a,b). No significant effect of the treatments preceding the drying processes on the decrease in the absolute weight gain of the rehydrate was observed. Only a greater gradient of decrease is observed for samples dried in a dryer without circulation of the drying agent before the rehydration process, approaching asymptotically the level of equilibrium moisture content at a given process temperature. The research results of Vega-Gálvez et al. [37] on the effect of drying temperature on the quality of rehydrated dried red pepper showed that the best product quality was achieved when the samples were pre-treated before drying. However, as reported by Krokida and Maroulis [54], dehydrated products did not recover their original structural properties after rehydration due to structural damage that occurred during drying and the hysteresis phenomenon observed during rehydration. Additionally, the porosity of rehydrated products was higher than during dehydration.

Stabilization of the rehydration process of samples subjected to circulating and non-circulating drying, regardless of the method of pre-treatment, is similar (Figure 5a,b).

Upon closer analysis of individual characteristics, it can be observed that successive values of the mass index m(t)⋅m⁻¹(t + 1) do not form an increasing sequence. For instance, in samples without pre-treatment and dried with air circulation, a minimal decrease in relative mass gain of the rehydrate occurs after 120 min, while for samples dried with air circulation, this decrease is observed after 110 min (Figure 6a). Similar decreases are noted for samples dried without pre-treatment and without air circulation at 80 and 110 min during the rehydration process. This may suggest a mass exchange between the rehydrate and the solution (Figure 6a). In the case of material subjected to blanching, decreases are observed at 50, 70, 110 and 130 min for circulating dried samples, and at 100, 120 and 140 min for rehydration (Figure 6b).

For microwave-heated samples, changes occurred at 80, 110 and 140 min during the rehydration process, irrespective of the drying method used (Figure 6c). Samples dried osmotically and with air circulation showed changes at 110, 120 and 140 min, while those dried without air circulation exhibited changes at 50, 80, 110 and 130 min of rehydration (Figure 6d). All observed changes will be investigated further. This phenomenon may be caused by the higher air temperature and microwave power, which led to tissue and cell damage, consequently resulting in water retention within spaces formed by the damaged cells [38]. According to Horuz [46], cherries dried using the hybrid method exhibited higher rehydration capacity, particularly at higher microwave powers. Askari et al. [55] reported that microwave energy generates intercellular gaps, which may contribute to an increased ability of the dried product to absorb significant amounts of water during rehydration. Similarly, Maskan [56], while drying kiwi fruit using hot air, microwaves and combined hot air–microwave drying techniques, found that kiwi fruits dried using the combination method had the highest rehydration capacity. He also noted that the combined method improved the water absorption ability of the fruit. According to Tepe and Tepe [57], the rehydration degree of microwave-dried apple slices is higher than that of apple slices dried using hot air. This can be explained by the expansion and swelling of food caused by the high internal pressure generated by microwaves. Due to the reduction in structural density and the increase in intercellular gaps through this mechanism, the water absorption capacity increases [55,58]. Similar conclusions were drawn by Aghilinategh et al. [47]. Askari et al. [55] found that microwave energy increases the water absorption ability of microwave-dried apple slices more than that of slices dried using hot air. Furthermore, it was observed that the rehydration degree of apple slices increased as the microwave power decreased. This may be because high microwave power causes permanent cell rupture, tissue displacement and loss of structural integrity, resulting in significant shrinkage, dense structures and severely contracted capillaries. The reduced hydrophilic properties demonstrate lower water absorption capacity and prevent water accumulation, leaving pores unfilled [59,60,61].

In addition, the degree of rehydration of the obtained dried material was determined depending on the method of drying the material and the preceding preparatory treatments of the raw material before the drying process. Lower values of the degree of rehydration were obtained for samples dried without air circulation (Figure 7b). Due to the type of pre-treatment preceding the drying process, no significant changes were observed only in the case of samples not subjected to any pre-treatment (see Figure 7a,b). The lowest degree of rehydration was achieved for samples subjected to osmotic drying (Figure 7b). Blanching or microwave heating provided the same degree of material hydration. Slightly different results were obtained by Taiwo et al. [62], who studied the effect of pretreating apples for drying (high-intensity electric pulses and osmotic dehydration in a sucrose solution) on their rehydration capacity. The authors concluded that the rehydration capacity of apples increased with the duration of osmotic dehydration, while blanched and pre-frozen samples exhibited higher rehydration capacity and were also firmer. The electrical conductivity of the immersion medium increased with rehydration time but decreased with osmotic dehydration.

On the basis of the conducted tests, the kinetics of rehydration were plotted (Figure 8, Figure 9 and Figure 10). The research showed that the content of absolute humidity during low-temperature rehydration is most effective for dried apples, which were subjected to osmotic drying in a 10% starch solution in the previous treatment, Figure 8a,b. In addition, all samples that were dried in the circulating air dryer contained a higher absolute humidity content than those that were dried without the flow of the drying agent, regardless of the pretreatment. Interesting conclusions regarding the impact of the drying method on the rehydration degree of apple cubes can be found in the work of Figiel [63]. The author dried apple cubes using two methods: convection drying with an air stream at a velocity of 4 m/s and a temperature of 55 °C, and a combined method involving preliminary convection drying followed by microwave–vacuum drying (with preliminary drying times of 40, 100 and 160 min and microwave power levels of 240, 480 and 720 W). After drying, the apple cubes were rehydrated in distilled water at 21 °C. Figiel reported that the samples dried using the combined method exhibited better rehydration properties, as evidenced by their absorption capacity, dry matter retention and rehydration ability compared to those dried solely by convection.

Based on the obtained results, the rate of rehydration was determined at the temperature of 20.0 °C ± 1.0 °C. The rate of rehydration decreased during the process [64], and after about two hours it asymptotically approached zero (Figure 9). In the first 10 min of the irrigation process, a higher rate of water absorption was observed in samples dried without forced air flow than in the case of samples dried in an air-flow dryer (Figure 9a,b). The high rate of water uptake during the initial stage of rehydration can be explained by the rapid filling of capillaries and cavities located near the surface [65].

In the initial phase of rehydration, the rate of irrigation takes on higher values and in the first (20–50) minutes it is characterized by a large gradient of decrease. After the complete hydration of the material, the factor determining the rate of rehydration is the internal movement of moisture caused by mass exchange with the solution and the concentration difference that occurs at a given process temperature in the deeper layers of the rehydrated material. The results obtained during the experiment are consistent with the findings of Winiczenko [11]. They observed that the fastest volume increase occurred during the initial stage of rehydration, while water absorption slowed down in the later stages as the samples approached equilibrium. Similar trends in volume changes during rehydration were noted by Bilbao-Sáinz et al. [12] for apples and by Witrowa-Rajchert [66] for apples, carrots, parsley and potatoes. The rapid initial water absorption is likely related to the filling of surface capillaries in the samples [67].

During this period, there is a further decrease in the rate of rehydration. In the next phase, the rate of rehydration decreases and, assuming a constant value for a certain period of time (50–100) minutes at a given temperature (20.0 ± 1.0) °C, it tends to zero in the last phase (Figure 10a,b). As reported by Witrowa and Dworski [68], the rate of water absorption, the leaching of soluble substances, the increase in volume and the density of rehydrated apple increase with temperature and soaking time. It is therefore possible to model water uptake and the equilibrium of soluble substances in reconstituted fruits and vegetables by controlling the process duration, temperature and type of rehydration medium used. Confirmation of these observations can be found in the work of Riveros-Gomez et al. [69], who studied the drying kinetics and rehydration of peeled and unpeeled slices of Granny Smith green apples. They dried the apples at temperatures of 50, 60 and 70 °C and then rehydrated them at 20 and 98 °C. The researchers observed that apple slices hydrated at boiling temperature better retained the properties of fresh samples due to the short immersion time in water. However, they found no significant differences between peeled and unpeeled apples. Similar observations were noted in the study by Górnicki et al. [10].

4. Conclusions

In the context of various drying techniques, microwave drying demonstrated better rehydration capacity compared to traditional methods due to faster heating and the potential preservation of cellular structure. The results obtained suggest that the rehydration properties of dried apples are influenced by a combination of factors, including pre-treatment, the geometric properties of the biomaterial and the drying techniques employed.

Blanching, microwave heating and osmotic drying reduce water adsorption in materials dried in dryers without air circulation compared to those dried in dryers with forced air circulation. The process of prior osmotic drying significantly affects water absorption, irrespective of the drying method used in conventional dryers, reducing the rehydration capacity of dried apple cubes by up to 32%.

Blanching the raw material before drying decreases the speed and effectiveness of rehydration, indicating that this process may help preserve the internal structure of dried apple cubes prepared for long-term storage.

The conclusions from this research may be valuable for both the food industry and nutrition science, contributing to the development of higher-quality storage products that retain the taste and nutritional value of the raw material. Furthermore, the findings can be used to optimize the drying and rehydration processes of other types of fruit.