Efecto de la agitación sobre la deshidratación osmótica de pitahaya amarilla (selenicereus megalanthus s.) Empleando soluciones de sacarosa

The effect of the stirring (180, 220, y 240rpm) on water loss and sugar gain in the process of osmotic dehydration of pitahaya slices was studied, using osmotic solutions of sucrose with two concentration levels, 45 and 55°Brix. Additionally, the porosity of the pitahaya in fresh and osmotically dehydrated states was determined and related to the stirring speed. The results showed that stirring level has a significant effect on water loss, with a greater relative variation for the treatments at 45°Brix. Sugar gain did not show significant differences as an effect of agitation speed. This is explained by the low porosity of the pitahaya in fresh state (2.78 ±0.35%), which hinders the entry of the sucrose molecules into the fruit. The results suggest that osmotic dehydration is emerging as an appropriate pretreatment technique for the yellow pitahaya due to the low gain in solids during the process.