Determination of drying parameters in drying some mushroom varieties by microwave method

In the thesis study, 4 different mushroom varieties (oyster, cultivated, chestnut and shiitake) were dried with 3 different microwave power (100, 200 and 300 W). Drying kinetics of the mushroom samples were investigated and 10 different mathematical models were applied to the experimental data to select the thin layer drying model that best describes the drying behavior of mushrooms. In addition, colour changes and rehydration ratio values of mushroom samples were analyzed. When examined the results of the experiment, the shortest drying time was seen in the application where the chestnut mushroom was dried at 300 W microwave power with 27 min. It has been observed that drying time of the products increases with the decrease of microwave power. As a result of the statistical calculations, it was found that the model that best describes the drying kinetics of the cultivated mushroom dried at 300 W microwave power was the Page model, while for other drying applications, it was found that Midilli et al. model. With the effect of drying, a decrease in L * values of all fresh mushroom samples was observed (p<0,05). The highest rehydration values were determined in cultivated and shitake mushroom samples dried at 100 W microwave power. As a result, it was found that microwave drying method is a viable method for drying oyster, culture, chestnut and shiitake mushrooms.