Document Type

Honors Thesis

Publication Date

Spring 5-2017

Abstract

Sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) is a marine macroalgae that contains a rich source of fibers, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. However, systematic studies on the effects of dehydration and drying on the kelp composition and quality attributes are limited. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of process parameters of a convective air-oven on the quality and nutritional attributes of dried sugar kelp. The study evaluated the effects of hot air drying temperature, humidity and time on the physicochemical properties (water activity, moisture content, pH, color, water holding capacity, oil holding capacity, ash content, fat content and vitamin C) of sugar kelp during drying. The ash content of the samples was found to be in the range of 23.32% - 33.05% (dry basis) and is inversely correlated with the water holding capacity (r = -0.84) and oil holding capacity (r = -0.84), which suggest that the textural properties in kelp are highly dependent on the ash content irrespective of the drying temperature and humidity conditions. Further, the results indicated that the moisture content was dependent on the humidity and decreased with an increase of drying temperature. The water activity of dried kelp was below 0.66 for all samples, which was expected due to the free and bound water taken out during the drying process. Heat sensitive nutrients such as vitamin C showed a positive correlation with respect to the drying temperature (30°C to 70°C), which indicates that the drying time has a significant effect (p<0.05) on vitamin C.

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