Fruits serve as a source of energy, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. One of the barriers in increasing fruit and vegetables consumption is time required to prepare them. Overall, fruit bars have a far greater nutritional value than the fresh fruits because all nutrients are concentrated and, therefore, would be a convenience food assortment to benefit from the health benefits of fruits. The consumers prefer fruit bars that are more tasted followed by proper textural features that could be obtained by establishing the equilibrium of ingredients, the proper choosing of manufacturing stages and the control of the product final moisture content. Fruit bar preparations may include a mixture of pulps, fresh or dried fruit, sugar, binders, and a variety of minor ingredients. Additionally to the conventional steps of manufacturing (pulping, homogenizing, heating, concentrating, and drying) there have been proposed the use of gelled fruit matrices, dried gels or sponges, and extruders as new trends for processing fruit bars. Different single-type dehydration or combined methods include, in order of increasing process time, air-infrared, vacuum and vacuum-microwave drying convective-solar drying, convective drying, and freeze drying are also suggested as alternative to solar traditional drying stage. The dehydration methods that use vacuum exhibited not only higher retention of antioxidants but also better color, texture, and rehydration capacity. Antioxidant activity resulting from the presence of phenolic compounds in the bars is well established. Besides this, fruit bars are also important sources of carbohydrates and minerals. Given the wide range of bioactive factors in fresh fruits that are preserved in fruit bars, it is plausible that their uptake consumption have a positive effect in reducing the risk of many diseases.

Developments and trends in fruit bar production and characterization.

Swelling of alginate polymer matrix in water involves a build up of network pressure due to an elastic extension of the polymeric matrix. When this network pressure undergoes relaxation by means of dehydration, shrinkage may take place. Three different types of wet alginate gels were prepared and dried using microwave-vacuum-drying technique. Dried alginate gel solids had a porous structure. To understand the stress relaxation behavior of alginate gel-based porous solid structures, uniaxial compressive relaxation studies were performed at selected strain rates, preloads and relaxation times Experimental relaxation curves were normalized and fitted to an empirical relationship, and relaxation behavior was explained. Stress relaxation data were also fitted to another empirical model. All three types of gels had similar elastic components. At lower strain rate, all samples had more resistance to elastic deformation. Stress relaxation information of the dried gel was related to its microstructure. Type 2 gel had more stiffness than type 1 and type 3 gels. The mechanism involved in stress relaxation was entanglement coupling of larger polymer chains in covalently cross-linked alginate gels.

Stress relaxation behavior of microwave-vacuum-dried alginate gels

Many common synthetic and edible materials are, in fact, cellular solids. When classifying the structure of cellular solids, a few variables, such as open vs. closed cells, flexible vs. brittle cell walls, cell-size distribution, cell-wall thickness, cell shape, the uniformity of the structure of the cellular solid and the different scales of length are taken into account. Compressive stress-strain relationships of most cellular solids can be easily identified according to their characteristic sigmoid shape, reflecting three deformation mechanisms: (i) elastic distortion under small strains, (ii) collapse and/or fracture of the cell walls, and (iii) densification. Various techniques are used to produce hydrocolloid (gum) cellular solids. The products of these include (i) sponges, obtained when the drying gel contains the occasionally produced gas bubbles; (ii) sponges produced by the immobilization of microorganisms; (iii) solid foams produced by drying foamed solutions or gels containing oils, and (iv) hydrocolloid sponges produced by enzymatic reactions. The porosity of the manufactured cellular solid is subject to change and depends on its composition and the processing technique. The porosity is controlled by a range of methods and the resulting surface structures can be investigated by microscopy and analyzed using fractal methods. Models used to describe stress-strain behaviors of hydrocolloid cellular solids as well as multilayered products and composites are discussed in detail in this manuscript. Hydrocolloid cellular solids have numerous purposes, simple and complex, ranging from dried texturized fruits to carriers of vitamins and other essential micronutrients. They can also be used to control the acoustic response of specific dry food products, and have a great potential for future use in countless different fields, from novel foods and packaging to medicine and medical care, daily commodities, farming and agriculture, and the environmental, chemical, and even electronic industries.

Production, properties, and applications of hydrocolloid cellular solids.

Influence of Processing Methods on Mechanical and Structural Characteristics of Vacuum Microwave Dried Biopolymer Foams

Microwave energy drying under vacuum was investigated for alginate-starch hydrogel. Drying was conducted using 2450 MHz microwave energy at 25 mm Hg absolute pressure and different power levels; e.g., 300, 500, 700, 900, and 1100 watts. Drying was continued until final moisture content of the sample reached less than 1% wet basis. Moisture loss during drying was measured at 3-min intervals. Drying kinetics were used to describe both macroscopic and microscopic mechanisms of heat and mass transfer. Experimental drying kinetic data were fitted to a mathematical model. Experimental drying data points were fitted to an empirical model equation.

Effect of Microwave Energy on Vacuum Drying Kinetics of Alginate-Starch Gel

A novel, vitamin A-fortified, edible hydrocolloid sponge for children

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A novel, vitamin A-fortified, edible hydrocolloid sponge for children