Alternative Way of Preparing Fruit and Vegetable Raw Material for Drying

Abstract

Drying is a fruit and vegetable processing technological procedure as a result of which food products with up to 1 year shelf life can be manufactured. Safety indices of the dried fruits and vegetables should comply with the stated standards. As a novelty, the raw material, to be dried, was treated with sodium pyrosulfite. The latter’s properties and chemical composition was studied, and after drying of fruits, expert examination was conducted. Unlike the sulfur powder, the processing with sodium pyrosulfite is much safer; besides the natural color of processed product is preserved and the drying time is reduced by 2-3 hours.