A study on drying of two types of fish, viz., Bombay duck and Prawn, using the open sun, a solar cabinet, hot air and freeze drying was carried out. The fish were dried to 5–6% moisture content. The drying rates were calculated and drying data were fitted to the Page model, and on the basis of R2 and RMSE values it was found that the Page model describes satisfactorily the drying behavior of Bombay duck and Prawn. Also, effective moisture diffusivity values were calculated during fish drying by different methods. The values of the average effective moisture diffusivity of Bombay duck and Prawn were in the range of 1.01 × 10-9 to 1.51 × 10-9 m2 s-1and 0.21 × 10-9 to 0.31 × 10-9 m2 s-1, respectively. Freeze drying was found to provide the best quality of dehydrated product, which was as expected. Solar cabinet drying was found to be a low-energy intensive process compared to freeze and hot air drying, resulting in a dehydrated product with acceptable quality.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
