Investigation of the production of traditional dried eggplant and development of a new method for drying

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the traditional production and the drying method so as to propose alternative methods for drying. Infrared and sunlight simulation drying methods were utilized to determine the changes of the dried eggplant. The carved eggplants (as in traditional method) were placed to specially design IR and sunlight chamber until drying to the traditional eggplant moisture level. The changes in moisture content, total phenolic content, antioxidant content, total anthocyanin content, nutritional values (ash, protein, carbohydrate, fat), color (L*, a*, b*, YI), acidity, aerobic plate count, mold and yeast count values were determined. The drying period was decreased from 72 hour of traditional method to 5 hours by Infrared and 30 hours by sunlight simulation drying method. Better color values were acquired with the IR drying method compared to traditional method. The lightness and redness of sample changed significantly (p≤0.05) with drying methods. Total anthocyanin content after IR drying was found to be significantly (p≤0.05) different than sunlight simulation and traditional drying methods. Microbial load was decreased significantly (p≤0.05) with IR drying method. The results showed that both methods proposed might be the alternative methods to eliminate hygiene concerns of the traditional products. The study demonstrated that the two methods proposed might be used to design alternative production line for industry.