The aim of the current research was to evaluate the effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on the properties of dried carrots. Carrots were blanched (B) (1 or 3 min) or osmotic dehydrated (OD) (15 or 30 min) and dried by either convection (CD), microwave-convection (MW-CD), microwave-vacuum (MVD), or freeze-drying (FD). FD carrots showed the highest dry matter content (93.6-95.8%) and the lowest water activity (0.24-0.38). MVD carrots had lower dry matter content (79.5-95.8%) and two times more water activity (0.447-0.637) than FD. The highest color difference (∆E) in relation to raw material was noted in MVD samples (22-35) and the smallest in CD and FD (7-18), mainly due to the increase in brightness of the dried carrot. In general dried MCD carrot samples were characterized by the highest max force (hardness) (21.6-42.5 N; on average 34.7 N) in the breaking test and the lowest hardness was observed in the CD (10.8 N) ones. Pre-treatment and drying caused a significant decrease in the content of carotenoids (2.0-2.7 times) and chlorophyll (2.7-4.5 times) compared to the fresh carrot but a retention or increase in the total content of phenolics and antioxidant activity, especially in microwave-vacuum-dried carrots with an increase of even 2.7-2.9 times compared to raw material. High phenolic content (195.6-277.4 mg GA/100 g d.m.) was found in pre-osmotic dehydrated samples, and lower phenolic content was found in blanched samples (110.7-189.6 mg GA/100 g d.m.). Significantly, the highest average antioxidant activity was found in microwave-vacuum-dried samples (228.9 µmol Trolox/100 g d.m.). The results of this study indicate that microwave-vacuum-drying as an alternative to freeze-drying, including in combination with thermal or osmotic treatment, is very promising for the production of dried carrot snacks.
Keywords: blanching; carrot snacks; drying method; osmotic enrichment; physicochemical properties.