Influence of Air-Drying Conditions on Quality, Bioactive Composition and Sensorial Attributes of Sweet Potato Chips

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). ; The drying process is an essential thermal process for preserving vegetables and can be used in developing dried products as healthy alternative snacks. The effects of air-drying conditions using a convection dryer with hot air at different temperatures (60◦, 65◦, 70◦, 75◦, and 80◦ C, in the range 5–200 min, at a fixed air speed of 2.3 m/s) were tested on the quality of slices (2.0 ± 0.1 mm) of dried sweet potato (Bellevue PBR). For each time and temperature, drying condition, physicochemical parameters (moisture content, CIELab color, texture parameters, total phenolic and carotenoid contents) and a sensory evaluation by a panel at the last drying period (200 min) were assessed. Drying time was shown to have a more significant effect than temperature on the quality of dried sweet potato as a snack, except for carotenoid content. Given the raw tuber content, thermal degradation (p < 0.05) of total phenolic compounds (about 70%), regardless of tested conditions, contrasted with the higher stability of total carotenoids (<30%). The dried product, under optimal conditions (≥75◦ C for 200 min), achieved a moisture content (≤10%) suitable for preservation, providing a crispy texture with favourable sensory acceptance and providing a carotenoid content similar to the raw product. ; publishersversion ; published