EFFECTS ON QUALITY DURING INFRARED AND HOT AIR CONDITIONING OF CASHEW KERNELS

SOUMITRA BANERJEE¹*, JAYEETA MITRA², S.L. SHRIVASTAVA^3
1Food Technology Division, Centre for Emerging Technologies, Jain University, Bangalore, 562112, India
²Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India
³Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India
* Corresponding Author : soumitra.banerjee7@gmail.com

Received : 29-08-2016     Accepted : 04-09-2016     Published : 30-10-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 52       Pages : 2511 - 2515
Int J Agr Sci 8.52 (2016):2511-2515

Keywords : Cashew kernel, Conditioning, Infrared, Properties, Sensory evaluation by fuzzy logic
Academic Editor : Dr Murlidhar Meghwal
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Post Harvest Technology (PHT), sponsored by ICAR - India, for providing financial assistance. The authors also acknowledge IIT, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India and Jain University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India for providing infrastructural facilities for this work.
Author Contribution : None declared

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of infrared conditioning of raw cashew kernels in terms of changes in properties and its comparative sensory analysis by fuzzy logic vis-a-vis hot air conditioning by electric tray dryer and conventional borma dryer. Changes in proximate composition were studied along with other properties like colour and microstructure changes. Proximate composition analysis showed that only moisture content varied significantly with raw cashew kernel for different conditioning methods (1% level of significance). Colour properties were found to vary with conditioning time. Microstructure analysis revealed that longer duration hot air conditioning treatment had more pronounced influence on kernel texture than short duration IR conditioning. Results of sensory evaluation study depicted that the acceptability of infrared conditioned cashew kernels were much similar to hot air and borma dryer conditioned cashew kernels and had good consumer acceptability.