COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESSES OF DEHYDRATION AND LYOPHILIZATION OF STRAWBERRY (fragaria) AND APPLE (MALUS)

The present work aims to perform a comparative analysis of the processes of dehydration and lyophilization of strawberry (fragaria) and apple (malus), collecting information from the variables of the processes, which will be carried out each process with a lyophilizer and a dehydrator, in which qualitative variables will be measured by an energy analyzer, which will obtain a much better response in the dehydration of fruits, with a value in consumption of kWh lower than that of lyophilization, and analyzing physicochemical characteristics through the use of laboratory techniques, in order to obtain moisture and ash content in percentages, the microbiological characteristics established by national regulations which were obtained total absence in the microbial load of E. coli and Salmonella, sensory characteristics are achieved without significant differences, which are performed by a five-point scalar hedonic analysis, a mass and energy balance was determined, in which there were much better yields when the fruit is dehydrated, with greater losses when the fruit is lyophilized, the cost-benefit balance was made to each process and a better result was obtained when the fruit is dehydrated, With a greater gain for each gram that was processed, so it is concluded that when performing dehydration will be obtained lower values of time, energy, weight loss, with better results when this is evaluated sensory, with greater benefits in terms of the balance of cost benefit, that is why dehydration is restarted in terms of lyophilization.