a

Original Article ISSN 0101-2061 (Print)

Food Science and Technology ISSN 1678-457X (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/fst.37020

Influence of microwave vacuum drying on the effective moisture diffusivity of seedless

white grapes
Yongdong LEI1,2 , Jiluan CHEN1, Zhenghong ZHANG2, Xiaorong DENG1*

Abstract
In this study, the effects of microwave power, vacuum degree and load weight on the moisture content of seedless white grapes
(Vitis vinifera L.) during microwave vacuum drying were investigated. The result found that during microwave vacuum drying,
the effective moisture diffusivity (Deff ) of seedless white grapes ranged between 1.0232 × 10−9 and 4.6354 × 10−9 m2/s. The Deff
values increased with the increase in the microwave power and the decrease in the load weight, the vacuum degree played a
relatively minor role. The kinetics of moisture ratio and drying time were established, with the drying process following the Page
model, as reflected by the fitting between model-predicted and measured data. The Page model was demonstrated to precisely
describe and predict the moisture content variation in seedless white grapes during microwave vacuum drying.
Keywords: seedless white grapes; microwave vacuum drying; effective moisture diffusivity; kinetic model.
Practical Application: The moisture content monitoring in seedless white grapes during microwave vacuum drying.

1 Introduction
Seedless white grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) have been identified to The effectiveness of the method in the drying of lotus and agaricus
be the most suitable variety of grapes for making raisins because of bisporus and carrots has already been verified by several studies
their characteristics such as full fruit size, special taste, rapid growth, (Cao et al., 2019; Jiang et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2020). Yang et al.
ability to form large clusters, high sweetness, and seedlessness (2019) demonstrated that microwave vacuum drying enhanced
(Wang et al., 2017). Fresh seedless white grapes can be made into the quality of 3D-printed mango juice jelly. Microwave vacuum
raisins via direct sun drying, sheltered drying, or hot air drying drying has, thus, been confirmed to be an effective method
(Khiari et al., 2019). However, inappropriate drying methods can in enhancing the quality of 3D-printed food. The study of
lead to nutrition loss and microbial proliferation, ultimately lowering Rodriguez et al. (2019) showed that microwave drying also
the raisin quality (Olivati et al., 2019) Hence, emerging novel food allowed a good surface color in the final product of raspberries
processing methods have aroused the attention of researchers. (Rubus Idaeus). The method, therefore, is highly suitable for
The methods involve incorporating techniques such as pressure, used in large-scale industrial practice because of its short drying
ultrasound, vacuum, microwave (Peña-Gonzalez et al., 2019; period and the ability to preserve the nutritive value of foodstuff.
Shabbir et al., 2019), freeze and microwave (Li et al., 2020),
high humidity and hot air (Bai et al., 2013), pulsed electric field During drying, moisture loss occurs due to liquid or vapor
(Nowacka et al., 2019), vibrating fluid (Meili et al., 2020), convective diffusion. Fick’s laws of diffusion define the relationship between
and microwave (Izli & Polat, 2019), and radio frequency-vacuum diffusivity and drying rate based on the mechanism of drying
(Zhou et al., 2018) into the drying process. These novel drying (Ouaabou et al., 2020). A series of solutions is the most commonly
techniques are designed to achieve cost-effectiveness, operational used format to describe a drying process, which depends on
simplicity, and energy efficiency. the initial and boundary conditions, and the material shape.
Effective moisture diffusivity (Deff ) is a critical parameter in
Microwave vacuum drying combines microwave and vacuum the modeling, design, and optimization of the drying process.
drying techniques and has advantages such as high drying Deff describes the possible mechanisms of movement of water
rate, use of low temperature, high efficiency, and operational molecules within foodstuff (Dutta et al., 2020; Ozcan-Sinir et al., 2019;
safety. While microwave provides a uniform heat source for Song et al., 2020; Zielinska et al., 2019). The mechanisms include
vacuum drying, reducing the overheating of parts that do not
liquid diffusion, vapor diffusion, surface diffusion, capillary flow,
require heating, the vacuum environment allows foodstuff to
hydrodynamic flow, and osmotic dehydration. However, the
be dried under a relatively low temperature, which facilitates
exact mechanism remains to be confirmed.
the preservation of their color, fragrance, flavor, and bioactive
substances (Ozcan-Sinir et al., 2019; Curi et al., 2019). So far, In recent years, several researchers have studied the
microwave vacuum drying has been recognized as the most relationship between Deff and the geometrical shape, moisture
promising method for the preservation of fruits and vegetables. content, and temperature of agricultural products such as potatoes

Received 09 Sept., 2020

Accepted 05 Oct., 2020
1
Food College, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China
2
Food Quality Supervision and Testing Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi, China
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

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Original Article
Changes of moisture activity of grape by vacuum microwave

(McMinn et al., 2003), garlic (Sharma & Prasad, 2004), and red where mt is the material weight (g) at time t; mg is the material
peppers (Horuz et al., 2020). The internal heating mechanism of weight (g) when it is thoroughly dried; ∆m is the mass difference
the foodstuff and the conditions of microwave vacuum drying are (g) between two adjacent measurement points; and ∆t is the time
different from the heating mechanism and conditions of regular difference (min) between two adjacent measurement points.
drying. However, no study has reported the moisture diffusion
characteristics of seedless white grapes during microwave vacuum
drying. Hence, this study aimed to confirm the effective moisture Mt − Me
MR = (3)
diffusivity of fresh seedless white grapes dried using microwave Mo − Me
vacuum drying. The dependence of Deff on microwave power,
degree of vacuum, and load weight was also investigated, given where MR is the moisture ratio; Mt is the dry basis moisture
the fact that they could all influence the drying rate. Results of this content (g/100 g) at time t; M0 is the initial dry basis moisture content
study are expected to shed light on the microwave vacuum drying (g/100 g); and Me is the dry basis moisture content (g/100 g)
mechanism of seedless white grapes and aid the development of when the process is at equilibrium.
novel dried seedless white grape products. When the drying process reaches equilibrium, Me becomes
much smaller than M0 and Mt; hence, Equation 3 can be simplified
2 Materials and methods as Equation 4.

2.1 Materials
Mt
MR = (4)
Fresh “Thompson” seedless white grapes were purchased Mo
from the local market in Shihezi, Xinjiang, China. Grapes with
uniform weight, that is, a single fruit weight of 3.00 ± 0.55 g and a The effective moisture diffusivity (m2/s), Deff, can be calculated
single cluster weight of 350 ± 10.55 g, were picked up for the study. using the following equation:
They were then flushed thoroughly using clean water. The grape
stems, other impurities, and the damaged or rotten grapes were
removed subsequently. Hot air drying (Khamtree et al., 2019) was 8 π 2 Deff
ln=
MR ln − t (5)
used to measure the initial moisture content of the fresh seedless π 2
r2
white grapes, which was observed to be between 78.78 and 81.23%.
where r is the diameter (mm) of a seedless white grape and t is
2.2 Microwave vacuum drying the drying time (s).

Fresh seedless white grapes were dried under microwave 2.4 Statistical analysis
vacuum using a RWBZ-24S microwave vacuum dryer (Surui,
Nanjing, China). The microwave power, degree of vacuum, and Each measurement was repeated three times, and results are
load weight were 50 to 300 W, −0.02 to −0.06 MPa, and 200 to presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD). The SPSS Statistics
1000 g, respectively. Version 17.0 (International Business Machines Corporation,
Chicago, IL, USA) was used to evaluate the significance of
The grape samples were spread uniformly on the loading difference (P < 0.05) among the data. All figures in this study
surface of the vacuum dryer as a single layer. When the required were plotted using Origin 8.0 (OriginLab Corp., Northampton,
vacuum degree was achieved, appropriate microwave power was NC, USA).
applied. The microwave oven was closed and vacuum released
every 10 min to record the sample weight. It took about 30-60
s to complete a single measurement. Drying was stopped when
3 Results and discussion
the moisture content reached to 13.0 ± 0.5%.
3.1 Microwave vacuum drying characteristics of seedless
white grapes
2.3 Effective moisture diffusivity
The influence of microwave power on the drying efficiency
The effective moisture diffusion rate was calculated based of seedless white grapes during the microwave vacuum drying,
the method proposed by Dak & Pareek (2014) and Abhishek the drying curve, and moisture loss curve are all presented in
Dutta et al. (2020), with minor modifications as Equation (1) Figure 1A and B. The dry basis moisture content of the seedless
and Equation (2): white grapes is seen to decrease exponentially (Figure 1A). The dry
basis moisture content is also found to decrease more rapidly
with the increase in the microwave power. Hence, under the
mt − mg
Dry basis moisture content (g/100 g) = × 100 (1) same vacuum degree and load weight, a shorter drying time is
mg
required with the increase in the microwave power. The drying of
seedless white grapes under varying values of microwave power
consists of the acceleration and deceleration stages (Figure 1B).
Moisture water loss rate (g/min) = ∆m (2) The rate of moisture loss from the seedless white grapes increased
∆t with the increase in the microwave power. The time required for

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Lei et al.

Figure 1. The drying curves (A, C and D) and moisture loss rate curves (B, D and F) of seedless white grapes under different microwave drying parameters.

moisture loss during this acceleration stage decreased and the relatively low, the boiling point of water became relatively high.
moisture loss curve became steeper. Meanwhile, the intensity The local temperature of the interior of the material increased
of microwave radiation was found to have a profound influence dramatically, which burned the material, hindering the diffusion
on the drying rate of the seedless white grapes. Even when the of water. The results were consistent with the results of the
rate of moisture loss was constant, the rate of drying was found microwave drying of lotus seeds obtained by Zhao et al. (2017)
to increase with the increase in the intensity of the microwave However, accelerating the process of evaporation by increasing
radiation. Consistent with the microwave drying rates of red the vacuum degree was the major limitation. Considering other
peppers obtained by Horuz et al. (2020), it was observed that factors such as energy efficiency and the overall product quality,
the drying time decreased with the increase in the microwave the optimum vacuum degree for microwave vacuum drying was
power, which may be attributed to the fact that a higher intensity observed to be around −0.04 MPa.
of microwave radiation facilitated energy accumulation within
the material. The high energy accumulation further increased the The influence of the load weight on the drying rate of
vapor pressure difference between the interior and surface of seedless white grapes is shown in Figure 1E and F. Under fixed
the material, which made it easier for water molecules to reach vacuum degree and microwave power, rate of decrease of the
their boiling point. Results obtained by Dev et al. (2008) indicated dry basis moisture content with the increase in the load weight is
that microwave treatment dramatically enhanced the drying rate observed to be slow, resulting in a longer drying time (Figure 1E).
of grapes as compared to the pulsed electric field and regular The phenomenon may be attributed to the fact that since the
chemical pretreatment methods. amount of water to be removed increased with the increase in
the load weight at fixed microwave power (Zhao et al., 2017),
The influence of the vacuum degree on the drying rate the microwave energy absorbed by the seedless white grapes per
of seedless white grapes is shown in Figure 1C and D. Under unit weight decreased. The microwave vacuum drying of seedless
fixed microwave power and load weight, the dry basis moisture white grapes under varying load weight still mainly consists of
content of the seedless white grapes is seen to decrease with the the acceleration and deceleration stages, with the rate of water
increase in the vacuum degree (Figure 1C). While the microwave loss increasing with the increase in the load weight (Figure 1F).
vacuum drying of seedless white grapes mainly consists of the
acceleration and deceleration stages, the constant-rate period is The microwave vacuum drying characteristics of seedless
relatively short (Figure 1D). The whole process was consistent white grapes indicated that factors such as high microwave
with the drying rate variation mechanism proposed traditionally. power, low degree of vacuum, and low load weight facilitated
In addition, even when the rate of moisture loss was constant, moisture evaporation. The microwave vacuum drying of
a higher vacuum degree was found to lead to a higher drying seedless white grapes mainly occurred during the deceleration
rate of seedless white grapes. The phenomenon was due to the stage, which was consistent with the results of the studies
fact that the higher vacuum degree accelerated the evaporation conducted on apple pomace (Wang et al., 2007), mushroom
of water (Balzarini et al., 2018). When the vacuum degree was (Giri & Prasad, 2007), garlic (Sharma & Prasad, 2001), and

Food Sci. Technol, Campinas,      v42, e37020, 2022 3

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Changes of moisture activity of grape by vacuum microwave

carrot (Sutar & Prasad, 2007). Meanwhile, different from cut microwave power was found to be the most profound. Meanwhile,
fruits, the skin of the seedless white grapes can hinder water the conclusion obtained from drying pomegranate arils that
transfer during drying (Clary et al., 2005). When compared with Deff increased with the increase in the processing strength was
the process using single fixed microwave power, the one using validated (Briki et al., 2019). It was then concluded that with the
incremental power was found to enhance the characteristics of increase in the microwave power and the decrease in the load
dried grapes. Therefore, during drying, it is advisable to reduce weight, the drying time decreased but the effective moisture
the microwave power in phases to prevent overheating. diffusivity increased dramatically. The results were similar to the
microwave vacuum drying results of edamame (Islam et al., 2019)
3.2 Influence of microwave vacuum drying on the effective and potato chips (Azimi-Nejadian & Hoseini, 2019).
moisture diffusivity of seedless white grapes Under all microwave vacuum drying conditions, the effective
The moisture diffusion characteristics in the inner system of moisture diffusivity (Deff ) increased with the decrease in the moisture
food materials, including molecular diffusion, vapor diffusion, content, as shown in Figures 1. The results indicate that the vapor
liquid mechanical flow, and other transport mechanisms, permeability increased with the decrease in the moisture content
can be represented using the effective moisture diffusivity when the pores were open. During the initial drying stage, the
(Deff ). The variation in Deff is a complicated system function moisture content was relatively high so the absorbed microwave
(Eminoglu et al., 2019; Karathanos et al., 1990). The drying rate energy was high. The high microwave energy increased the water
declining cycle was analyzed by measuring the effective moisture vapor pressure within the vapor bubbles and caused the bubble
diffusivity (Deff ), and the influence of the processing parameters pressure. During the initial drying stage, liquid diffusion was the
and moisture content on the drying kinetics. major moisture transfer mechanism. As the drying proceeded, the
moisture vapor diffusion would become the major mechanism during
The drying of seedless white grapes was mainly in the the late stage. İlter et al. (2018) proposed a mathematical model to
deceleration stage, and the effective moisture diffusivity was describe the microwave drying process of a porous medium, with
calculated using Fick’s second law of diffusion. As shown in microwave power as one of the key drying parameters. From this
Equation 5, a linear relationship was observed between ln MR model, it may be inferred that moisture evaporation starts once
and drying time t for seedless white grapes during the drying
the absorbed microwave energy reaches the local porous pressure.
process. Figure 2 shows the change in ln MR with respect to t.
The Deff values of the seedless white grapes were obtained using
linear regression under different microwave vacuum drying 3.3 Establishment and testing of the kinetics of the
conditions (Table 1). microwave vacuum drying of seedless white grapes
As can be seen in Table 1, with the other conditions fixed, Drying is a complex process in which both heat and mass
the Deff value at −0.02 MPa was comparable to that at −0.04 MPa. transfers occur simultaneously. The drying of fruits and vegetables is
When the load weight was between 200 and 1000 g, the Deff value especially complicated due to their substantial structural variations
was between 1.0232×10−9 and 4.6354×10−9 m2/s. As the load weight (Erbay & Icier, 2010). In real practice, the microwave vacuum dryer
decreased and the microwave power increased, Deff increased used in microwave vacuum drying is much more complicated
as well. This observation was similar to the results calculated than the device used to remove only moisture. Hence, effective
using Fick’s law of diffusion by Cuevas et al. (2019) who found models are necessary in process design, optimization, energy
that the Deff values during the drying process decreased with an integration, and control. The three most commonly used drying
increase in the sample thickness. The influence of load weight models (Eminoglu et al., 2019; Ozcan-Sinir et al., 2019) in fruits
and microwave power on the Deff values was more substantial and vegetables are the following:
than that of vacuum degree, among which the influence of
Exponential model: = exp ( −kt )
MR (6)

MR
One-way diffusion model:= Aexp ( − Bt ) (7)

Page model: = exp −kt n

MR ( ) (8)

where k, A, B, and n are the model parameters.

It may be inferred from Equations 6, 7, and 8 that the
exponential model is a special form of the one-way diffusion
and Page models, both of which could be used to simulate the
microwave vacuum drying of seedless white grapes. A logarithm
fetch on Equations 7 and 8 led to

Figure 2. The lnMR change with respect to t of seedless white grapes. lnMR =− Bt + lnA (9)

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Lei et al.

ln ( −lnMR ) =
lnk + nlnt (10) n =y0 + y1V + y2 L + y3 P (12)

The lnMR vs. t curve (Figure 3) and the ln (–lnMR)vs.lnt where V is the vacuum degree (MPa); L is the load weight (g);
curve (Figure 4) of seedless white grapes dried under different P is the microwave power (w); and x0, x1, x3, y0, y1, y2, y3 are
microwave vacuum drying conditions were plotted based on underdetermined coefficients.
the experimental data.
Using the k and n values obtained under different vacuum
As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the ln(–lnMR) vs. lnt relationship degrees, load weight, and microwave power, we solved
was more linear than the lnMR vs. t relationship, which indicates
Equations 11 and 12 and obtained the following: x 0 = 0.0121675 ,
that the kinetics of the microwave vacuum drying of seedless
white grapes follows the Page model. The linear regression results x1 = −0.0001478 , x 2 = −0.00001235 , x 3 = 0.000098 ; y 0 = 0.5634862 ,
of Equation 10 are presented in Table 2. y1 = 0.00015863 , y 2 = 0.0004431, y3 = 0.0001235 . The drying kinetic
Regression factors, SE (standard deviation), t value, and R−2, model is as follows:
were used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit for all the drying models.
It may be inferred from Table 2 that the drying parameters in
the model, that is, k and n, were relevant functions of vacuum
= exp −kt n
MR ( ) (13)

degree, load weight, and microwave power. A linear polynomial

regression was used to obtain the above parameters: k =0.0121675 − 0.0001478V − 0.0000512 L + 0.000098 P

k =x0 + x1V + x2 L + x3 P (11) n =0.5634862 + 0.00015863V + 0.0004431L + 0.0001235 P

Figure 3. The −lnMR change with respect to t of seedless white grapes Figure 4. The ln(−lnMR) change with respect to lnt of seedless white
under varying microwave vacuum drying conditions. grapes under varying microwave vacuum drying conditions.

Table 1. Effective moisture diffusivity of seedless white grapes under microwave vacuum drying.
Vacuum degree (MPa) Load weight (g) Microwave power (W) Linear regression equation R2 Deff ×10-9 (m2·s-1)
-0.06 501.54 ± 2.34 150 ln MR = -0.00099t + 0.40736 0.99390 1.6538 ± 0.2498e
-0.04 502.45 ± 3.21 150 ln MR = -0.00093t + 0.43893 0.99336 1.2753 ± 0.2231f
-0.02 501.78 ± 2.56 150 ln MR = -0.00087t + 0.54352 0.98878 1.2065 ± 0.1746f
-0.06 202.15 ± 3.52 150 ln MR = -0.00014t + 0.80972 0.97049 2.0675 ± 0.2486c
-0.06 1004.23 ± 3.83 150 ln MR = -0.00128t + 0.80571 0.97537 1.8463 ± 0.3218d
-0.06 502.86 ± 3.57 300 ln MR = -0.00175t + 1.00933 0.95683 3.5892 ± 0.2142b
-0.06 202.91 ± 2.17 300 ln MR = -0.00275t + 1.20132 0.86086 4.6354 ± 0.3473a
-0.02 201.62 ± 2.85 50 ln MR = -0.00077t + 0.54361 0.98919 1.0232 ± 0.1872g
-0.04 203.75 ± 3.59 150 ln MR = -0.00092t + 0.37549 0.99456 1.2237 ± 0.1034f
Data are presented as means ± standard deviation. a,b,c,d,e,f,g Same letters in columns indicates that no statistically significant difference was observed between the samples.

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Changes of moisture activity of grape by vacuum microwave

Table 2. Linear regression analyses.

Microwave Regression
Vacuum degree (MPa) Load weight (g) Parameter SE t R2 P
power (W) coefficient
lnk -5.34062 0.31489 -16.96054
0.06 502.34 ± 2.76 150 0.97131 ﹤0.0001
n 1.54838 0.07673 20.17956
lnk -5.57697 0.29832 -18.69448
0.04 501.43 ± 3.25 150 0.97528 ﹤0.0001
n 1.58338 0.07269 21.78140
lnk -5.9475 0.23368 -25.45188
0.02 503.62 ± 2.46 150 0.98570 ﹤0.0001
n 1.63841 0.05694 28.77345
lnk -6.22198 0.19125 -32.53348
0.06 203.87 ± 3.49 150 0.99406 ﹤0.0001
n 1.84837 0.05051 36.59278
lnk -6.26572 0.21643 -28.95059
0.06 1002.32 ± 5.28 150 0.99164 ﹤0.0001
n 1.82504 0.05584 32.68386
lnk -6.38353 0.30715 -20.78305
0.06 503.36 ± 2.53 300 0.98760 ﹤0.0001
n 1.96823 0.08330 23.62848
lnk -7.20484 0.58403 -12.33641
0.06 203.08 ± 3.19 300 0.97881 ﹤0.0001
n 2.40532 0.17648 13.62911
lnk -6.16107 0.22117 -27.85719
0.02 201.67 ± 4.21 50 0.98667 ﹤0.0001
n 1.64614 0.05305 31.03155
lnk -5.20022 0.26315 -19.76130
0.04 202.09 ± 2.86 150 0.97726 ﹤0.0001
n 1.49316 0.06312 23.65677
Note: n: the number of samples; SE: standard error; t: variable significance test; P: significant differences; R2: degree of the equation fit.

The Page drying kinetic model of the Equation 13 was also

tested. Under a vacuum degree of −0.04 MPa, load weight of
500 g, and a microwave power of 150W, the measured microwave
vacuum drying data of seedless white grapes were compared
with the Page model predicted data (Figure 5). As shown
in Figure 5, the experimental data fits well with the model
predicted data, which demonstrates that the Page model reflects
the moisture rate variation of seedless white grapes during
microwave vacuum drying. The Page model, was therefore
found suitable to describe the microwave vacuum drying of
seedless white grapes within the experimental range. It was
observed that the drying rate increased with the increase in
the microwave power density. The Page model was found to
be the optimum model to predict the drying characteristics of
carrot slices (Sutar & Prasad, 2007) and garlic (İlter et al., 2018)
under different process conditions.
From the abovementioned experimental results, the moisture Figure 5. Comparison of the experimental and model-predicted data
content and water loss variation of seedless white grapes during under identical microwave vacuum drying conditions.
microwave vacuum drying could be predicted relatively precisely,
and the online monitoring of the moisture content of seedless white energy and thus local burning. Such problems can affect product
grapes during drying could be achieved. The abovementioned quality, and remain to be studied.
results also provided a basis for the optimization and control of
the microwave vacuum drying process of seedless white grapes. Additionally, microwave vacuum processing is more
A structural analyzer was also used to measure the mechanical time-efficient as compared to the traditional sheltered drying,
properties of dried fruits of seedless white grapes and simulate which typically occurs between August and September every year.
the key parameters to obtain their drying time. However, due Due to hot weather and dry air, the drying time is approximately
to problems pertaining to the microwave field and the uneven a month (Fang et al., 2010), while the microwave vacuum drying
thickness of the seedless white grape materials, it is expected only takes approximately 90 min, which dramatically shortens the
that microwave vacuum drying will lead to over-concentrated processing time. The microwave vacuum-dried grape products

6 Food Sci. Technol, Campinas,      v42, e37020, 2022

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Lei et al.

were always golden or brown in color, different from the dark Balzarini, M. F., Reinheimer, M. A., Ciappini, M. C., & Scenna, N. J.
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This work was supported by Key Laboratory of Agro-Products
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[grant numbers 009] and National Natural Science Foundation of Blackberry Fruits in a Convective Hot-air Dryer. HortScience,
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of China [grant numbers 31460438].
Erbay, Z., & Icier, F. (2010). A Review of Thin Layer Drying of Foods:
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