Effects of Tomato Geometries and Air Temperature on the Drying Behavior of Plum Tomato

The drying behavior of plum tomatoes as affected by drying temperature and tomato pieces geometry was investigated. The tomato was cut into halves, quarters and eighths and dried at temperatures of 55 and 65°C. During drying, the moisture content followed an exponential decay curve with R²>0.98. The time required to achieve the critical moisture content for storage (15%) for the tomato halves, quarters and eights were 36, 26 and 20 h and 23, 18 and 13 h, at the temperatures of 55 and 65°C, respectively. The rate of drying also followed exponential decay and was unaffected by the temperature and tomato piece geometries. The specific drying rate was dependent on the drying temperature and was not affected by geometry. The total surface area appeared to have a significant effect on the specific moisture loss than the cut surface area. Cutting the tomato samples into smaller pieces and drying at lower temperatures is recommended to reduce the drying time and maintain quality.