Three-dimensional (3D) numerical modeling of morphogenesis in dehydrated fruits and vegetables

Plant-sourced food items, such as fruits and vegetables, are an integral part of the human diet. Fruits and vegetables, by their nature, contain up to 90% water (Jangam, 2011), which induces internal microbial activities resulting in rapid spoilage. Therefore, the removal of water from food matter makes it more resistant to spoilage (Chen and Mujumdar, 2009) since microorganisms cannot thrive in dry environments (Delong, 2006). Drying is the oldest method of economically removing moisture from food materials, resulting in traditional (as well as innovative) dried food products (Jangam, 2011). Recently, there has been a significant increase in the consumption of dehydrated food in the market (De la Fuente-Blanco et al., 2006). This necessitates to efficiently produce high quality dried food products, where a close control of moisture content of the product has to be maintained, as shown in the drying curve in Figure 17.1. It is clear that the moisture tends to remove rapidly in a given bulk food sample at the beginning of a drying process, followed by a reducing trend, due to the collapse of the food structure, as elaborated in Figure 17.2a and 17.2b. Here, a bulk scale deforming and shrinking behavior of a fresh apple sample is presented, before and after drying. As evidenced by Figures 17.1 and 17.2, the bulk food material undergoes gradual physical alterations leading to morphological changes with the removal of moisture. Depending on these variations in the bulk scale, it is evident that the cellular structure of the food material should similarly undergo consequent deformations during the process.