Investigation of influence of pre-treatment and low-temperature on drying kinetics, sorption properties, shrinkage and color of brown seaweeds (Saccharina Latissima)

Drying kinetics of Saccharina latissima (raw and blanched) at low temperatures (10.0, 25.0 and 38.0 °C) was studied. The effective moisture diffusivity coefficient varied due to temperature alterations in the range between 1.4 and 4.5 10-10 m2/s for raw and 0.91 and 2.56 10-10 m2/s for blanched seaweeds. Significant changes in structural properties and chemical composition resulted in a much longer drying time of blanched seaweeds, when compared with raw. Drying temperature of 38.0 °C resulted in more brown color, when compared with other samples. Sorption characteristics of dried raw seaweeds depended on salt content and showed high accumulation of moisture at relative humidity of air of 80.0 %. The blanched seaweeds showed linear accumulation of moisture within increasing of relative humidity of drying air from 20.0 to 80.0 %, but high level of hysteresis was determined between sorption and desorption isotherms. The shrinkage development within dewatering of blanched and raw samples was also studied.