Efeitos da combinação de altas temperaturas e altas velocidades do ar de secagem na qualidade comercial de amêndoas de castanha-de-caju.

Abstract

Brazil is one of the largest fruit producers in the world. One of the main crops is the cashew nut, which represents a large part of Brazilian agribusiness, especially in the Northeast region. The chestnut produced has a great acceptance, especially in what concerns the international market, however, it suffers technological limitations in its processing, affecting the quality standards which harms its industrial income, consequently the final price. Among the attributes required for export, the most affected by processing problems are the integrity and color resulting from the roasting process. The improvement of these parameters basically depends on two stages of the processing which are the deroasting and the roasting. The removal of the film is largely responsible for the high cracking rates of the almond and the roast exerts a direct influence on the color of the product. For these reasons, it is necessary to invest in research aimed at reducing the damage caused by almonds during processing. In view of the above, this study aimed to evaluate the drying kinetics of thin-walled cashew nuts by two different drying methods, using the conventional 1.5 m s-1 air circulation dryer at temperatures of 60, 70, 80 and 90 ° C and apply the technique known as "air fryer", which uses a drying rate of 6 m s -1 at temperatures of 80, 120, 160 and 200 ° C, to evaluate the influence parameters in the final quality of the almonds. It was verified that both methods presented positive parameters in relation to the final quality of the products, and among the mathematical models used in the drying kinetics in conventional dryer the Page was the one that was best adapted to the experimental data, in relation to the drying with the "Air fryer" Wang's model presented the best adjustments. The colors of the almonds, resulting from drying at all temperatures, were commercially acceptable and the breaking rate was lower than that observed in industry.