Definição de parâmetros para a secagem em camada de espuma do fruto do juazeiro (ziziphus joazeiro m.)

Abstract

The juá is the fruit of the juazeiro. The name of the Juá fruit has an indigenous origin, more specifically the Tupi, and comes from "a-y-ú-á", which means "fruit harvested from the thorns". It is typically consumed by the sertanejo men, and it’s usually used as fodder for herds and wild animals. At higher stages of maturation, they are sweet and rich in vitamin C and can be used food supplement in order to supply micronutrient deficiencies such as vitamins and minerals in other food bases or as flours in food formulations such as breads, cakes and biscuits. Due to its high humidity, the fruit of the juazeiro requires the use of good conservation methods applied in its processing. Foam drying is a simple method of removing humidity from a liquid or semi-liquid material. This process has a low cost when compared to conventional industrial methods, since it uses less drying time due to the increase of the contact area available for transfer of heat and mass with the heated air, which facilitates the humidity removal. One of the difficulties encountered in the foam layer drying is with the stability of the foam during the drying process, if the foam does not remain stable, the cellular disruption will occur, causing serious damages to the dehydration process. This work aims to define parameters for the foam-mat drying of the juazeiro fruit, to obtain juá powder. The use of this method for drying the fruit of the juazeiro presented good results. It was observed that all analyzed parameters (agitation time and foaming agent concentration) directly influenced juá’s foam stability, where the foaming agent concentration was the variable that influenced the most the foam’s stability.