Impact of Inclined Solar Drier for Dehydration Quality in Khadrawy Dates during Doka Maturity Stage at North Western Arid India

Abstract

Experiment conducted on post-harvest utilization of date palm fruits of cultivar Khadrawy at doka maturity stage for development of dehydrated fruits at three different duration of days i.e. 5, 7 and 9days through inclined solar drier revealed that solar dehydration of the whole date fruits with increased duration of nine days led to the development of the dehydrated product with significant different for minimum physiological loss in weight (46.2%) and maximum recovery percentage (53.8%). However, on biochemical parameter the retention of quality of total sugar (52.1%), reducing sugar (2.7%) and Non reducing sugar (49.3%) was found significantly different when fruits were dried with minimum duration for five days. Organoleptic test by hedonic scoring revealed that the average scoring by the panels ranged from like slightly (6) to like very much (8) for color, flavour, texture and taste in the dehydrated fruits.