Search

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of ozone (O3) as a novel pre-treatment for carrot drying. To establish the best conditions, carrot cubes were exposed to increasing concentrations of O3 (0-40 µg/L) for 2 h before air convective drying at 70 °C. According to the mass transfer models, the results highlighted a correlation between higher effective diffusivity (4.654 x 10-11 m²/s) and increasing O3 concentrations. Furthermore, dried carrot cubes exhibited sustained levels of phenolic compounds (29.33-56.42 mg GAE/100 g), carotenoids (5.17-14.58 mg/100 g), antioxidant activity (1.27-5.01 µM Trolox/g), and inhibitory activity (IC50) against α-amylase (56.02-95.63 μg/mL) and α-glucosidase (29.72-69.08 μg/mL) as the O3 concentration increased up to 40 µg/L. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed different thermal profiles on carrot cubes due to O3 treatment. Furthermore, the O3 pre-treatment significantly accelerated and enhanced the rehydration of carrot cubes, resulting in faster absorption of moisture and restoration to the initial texture and volume. Overall, this study shows that O3 pre-treatment (40 µg/L) can be a rational strategy to optimize drying process, bringing an innovative and straightforward solution to preserve the techno-functionality of carrots. Future research should investigate the long-term stability of bioactive compounds and sensory characteristics of dried carrot subjected to O3 pre-treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]