Effect of the applied drying method on the physical properties of purple carrot pomace

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of different drying methods on selected physical properties of pomace obtained from purple carrot cv. Deep Purple. Drying was performed using four methods: convective, microwave-convective, infrared-convective and freeze-drying. The freeze-dried material had the lowest apparent density (422 kg m-3), which was caused by slight shrinkage, and indicated high porosity. Apparent density was almost three times greater in dried materials produced using the other drying methods as compared to the freeze-dried variants. Freeze-dried pomace adsorbed vapour more quickly than the other dried variants, which was caused by its high porosity and relatively low degree of structural damage. Rehydration characteristicswere significantly affected by the dryingmethod. The highest mass increase and losses of soluble substance were recorded for the freeze-dried samples. Conversely, the traditional convective drying method resulted in the lowest mass increase and soluble substance leaching. A positive linear correlation was found between the loss of soluble dry substance components and the absorbance of liquid obtained during rehydration.