Food and Bioprocess Technology

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-019-02340-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

Influences of Blanching and Freezing Pretreatments on Moisture

Diffusivity and Quality Attributes of Pumpkin Slices
During Convective Air-Drying
Yasumasa Ando 1 & Tomoya Okunishi 2 & Hiroshi Okadome 2

Received: 11 April 2019 / Accepted: 23 August 2019

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
In this study, the relationship between moisture diffusivity in convective air-drying and cellular structure through
blanching and freezing pretreatment and quality attributes of dried pumpkin slices were evaluated to obtain necessary
information for designing appropriate drying and pretreatment conditions. The results suggest that the loosely bound
structure of cell walls due to blanching and pores in the tissue formed by ice crystals during freezing increased moisture
diffusivity. In addition, the functional and structural damage of cell membranes by the pretreatments, shown by the
electrical impedance analysis, is likely involved in moisture diffusivity during drying. In particular, the sample pretreated
by both blanching and freezing showed significantly higher values of moisture diffusivity compared to other samples.
With regards to quality attributes, a decrease in color lightness due to starch gelatinization during blanching dramatically
affected the color characteristics of the dried product. Starch gelatinization due to blanching and the formation of pores
during freezing significantly influenced the structure of the samples after drying, which affected the rehydration rates
and mechanical properties.

Keywords Convective air-drying . Pumpkin . Blanching . Freezing . Moisture diffusivity . Cellular structure

Introduction terials to increase their storage stability and usability

(Gonçalves et al. 2011; Gliemmo et al. 2009; Provesi
Pumpkin is one of the most important crops cultivated et al. 2011; Sojak and Głowacki 2010; Nawirska et al.
and consumed throughout the world, it is recognized as 2009). Among these forms of processing, drying is the
a highly nutritious foodstuff due to its high content of most classical method of food preservation for extending
nutrimental and bioactive components including polysac- shelf-life, creating a lighter weight for transportation, and
charides, carotenoids, vitamins, dietary fiber, minerals, vi- taking up less space during storage (Dandamrongrak et al.
tamins, and other substances beneficial to human health 2002). Despite the development of newer drying tech-
(Yang et al. 2007; de Escalada Pla et al. 2007; Jacobo- niques, most vegetables are still air-dried because this
Valenzuela et al. 2011; Caili et al. 2006). Pumpkins are method of dehydration remains the simplest and most
often distributed as both raw vegetables and processed economical (Mazza 1983). However, air-drying has the
products such as frozen, pureed, precooked, or dried ma- disadvantages of a longer drying time during the falling
rate period, low energy efficiency (Orikasa et al. 2018),
and subsequent quality deteriorations such as color fad-
* Yasumasa Ando
yaando@affrc.go.jp
ing, browning, and loss of nutrients (Krokida et al. 1998;
Liu et al. 2014; Guiné and Barroca 2012; Horuz et al.
1
2017). Therefore, a large amount of data have been pre-
Institute of Vegetable and Floriculture Science, NARO, 360 Kusawa,
viously reported which estimate moisture diffusivity and
Anou, Tsu, Mie 514-2392, Japan
2
the modeling of moisture content changes during the con-
Food Research Institute, NARO, 2-1-12 Kannondai,
vective drying process of fruits and vegetables such as
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8642, Japan
 Food Bioprocess Technol

pumpkins (Doymaz 2007; Molina Filho et al. 2016; Guiné Materials and Methods
et al. 2012), tomatoes (Hawlader et al. 1991), kiwifruit
(Orikasa et al. 2008; Simal et al. 2005), and carrots (Liu Sample Preparation
et al. 2014; Doymaz 2004) to optimize drying conditions
to improve efficiency. Pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima) of the cultivar Kofuki were
In these ongoing studies, it has been shown that pre- obtained from a local market and used for experiments within
treatments such as blanching and freezing are effective in 7 days of purchase. Kofuki is a mealy type of pumpkin with
improving drying efficiency (Lewicki 1998; Mazza 1983; relatively high starch and sucrose contents (Cumarasamy et al.
Dandamrongrak et al. 2002; Eshtiaghi et al. 1994) and 2002). The initial moisture contents of the pumpkins were
suppressing the increase in sample temperature and gravimetrically determined to be 5.377 ± 0.017 on a dry basis
preventing the structural deformation (Tatemoto et al. (g/g) from an average of eight samples. The flesh of the pump-
2016; Ando et al. 2019a, b) of fruits and vegetables. kin was shaped into a discoid shape with a diameter of
Nieto et al. (1998) investigated the drying characteristics 20.5 mm and a thickness of 3.5 mm. Four types of samples,
of apples after blanching and suggested that the degrada- fresh (non-treated), blanched, fresh-frozen, and blanched fro-
tion of the middle lamella and hemicellulosic polysaccha- zen, were used for drying. For the blanching procedure, the
rides also affects the drying rate of fruits and vegetables. cylindrical sample was heated in boiling water for 40 s then
The high drying rates of prefrozen samples are attributed immediately cooled in iced water. The sample’s temperature
to the high moisture transfer rates in the tissues due to the was maintained at 25 °C in an incubator (CN-25C; Mitsubishi
remarkable disorder of the cell wall structure caused by Electric Engineering Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) for 1 h before drying.
the formation of ice crystals during freezing (Lewicki For the freezing procedure, the sample was wrapped in plastic
1998; Tatemoto et al. 2016). Furthermore, previous stud- film and stored in a freezer (HRF-90XT; Hoshizaki Corp.,
ies claim that destruction of the cell membrane structure Aichi, Japan) at − 20 °C for more than 4 h, then thawed in
and the modification of membrane permeability as a result the incubator at 25 °C for 3 h.
of freezing pretreatment also increase the drying rate
(Vaccarezza et al. 1974; Ando et al. 2016). Therefore, Drying Procedure and Calculation of Effective
the state of the cell wall and cell membrane structures Moisture Diffusivity
should be investigated to clarify the mechanism that
causes changes in drying rates due to pretreatments. It The measured room temperature and relative humidity were
has been reported that the blanching or freezing-thawing approximately 20 °C and 49%, respectively. During convec-
pretreatments are effective in facilitating moisture trans- tive air-drying, samples were placed in a drying chamber (DN-
port within the sample tissues of pumpkins during drying 42; Yamato Scientific Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) at controlled
(Arévalo-Pinedo and Murr 2007). However, the relation- temperatures of 40 °C, 60 °C, and 80 °C. The relative humid-
ship between structural changes in cells and the moisture ity in the chamber had been kept below 20% through the
transport phenomenon has not been clarified. drying. The air velocity in the chamber was 1.5 ± 0.1 m/s on
In this study, observations of cell wall structures and average throughout continuous measurements over 3 min.
electrical impedance analysis to characterize cell mem- After specified drying times, the sample was taken out of the
brane states were applied to evaluate the changes in cel- chamber and weighed. The moisture content was calculated
lular structures by blanching and freeze-thaw pretreat- from both the initial moisture content and the mass.
ments in pumpkin slices. These outcomes were then com- The moisture transport phenomenon during drying is often
pared with estimated moisture diffusivity during convec- described by using Fick’s diffusion equation. An analytical
tive air-drying. The dried products are sometimes used as solution in the case of drying a plane sheet of thin layer as-
an additive for instant soups, breads, and cakes after pow- suming one-dimensional moisture transport can be developed
dering, but are often used as a cooking ingredient after as follows (Crank 1975):
rehydration. Therefore, evaluation of rehydration charac- ( )
teristics and quality attributes after rehydration can be M −M e 8 ∞ 1 ð2n þ 1Þ2 Dπ 2 t
¼ ∑ exp − ; ð1Þ
useful for the quality design of the last products. In our M 0 −M e π2 n¼0 ð2n þ 1Þ2 4l 2
study, internal structures, rehydration characteristics,
colors, and mechanical properties of the samples were where M, Me, and M0 denote the moisture content, the equi-
evaluated to investigate the influence of the pretreatments librium moisture content (equilibrium value of the moisture
on the quality attributes of the dried products. The results content determined by air temperature and relative humidity),
obtained enable a greater understanding of the drying pro- and the initial moisture content on a dry basis, respectively. D
cesses which will be beneficial for designing appropriate denotes the effective diffusion coefficient (m2 s−1), l denotes
drying and pretreatment conditions. the half thickness of the sample slice (m), and t denotes the
Food Bioprocess Technol

time (s). Constants D and Me were determined by fitting Eq. Color Measurements
(1) to the averaged values of six samples using the least
squares method using the software (MATLAB R2018a, The A color-difference meter (CR-300, Minolta Co., Ltd., Tokyo,
MathWorks, Inc., Natick, USA). Thirty terms of the series Japan) was used to measure the colors of the sample surfaces
were used in the calculation which was sufficient for the con- during drying. After specified drying times, samples were
vergence. The root mean squared error was calculated as an taken out of the chamber and values of a color lightness
index of the goodness of fit. (L*), redness/greenness (a*), and yellowness/blueness (b*)
of both sides of the samples were measured and averaged.
As indices of color characteristics, the chroma, C*, and the
Electrical Impedance Analysis hue angle, h, were calculated via the following equations,
respectively:
The electrical impedance analysis, widely used to estimate the qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2
physiological status of various biological tissues (Zhang and C * ¼ ða* Þ2 þ b* ; ð2Þ
Willison 1992; Zhang et al. 1993; Ando et al. 2014; Watanabe  *
b
et al. 2018), was applied to evaluate cell membrane damage in h ¼ 180 tan−1 * =π: ð3Þ
the samples before and after each pretreatment. The imped- a
ance magnitudes |Z| (Ω) and phase differences θ (rad) of the
samples were measured at 81 points (logarithmic frequency
intervals) over a frequency range from 50 Hz to 5 MHz using Rehydration Characteristics
an impedance analyzer (IM3570, HIOKI E.E. Corp., Nagano,
Japan). The electrodes were penetrated from a side of the Each dried sample was immersed in 200 mL of distilled water
sample disk with a distance of 10 mm between the electrodes. in a beaker placed in a thermostatically controlled water bath
The electrodes were connected to the impedance analyzer via at 30 °C. After the specified rehydration times, the samples
coaxial cables. The sample temperature was maintained in an were removed from the water and wiped with absorbent paper
incubator at 25 °C, and the test was carried out at a room to remove residual water from the surface. The samples were
temperature of 25 °C. The measured impedance data were then weighed with an electric scale. The moisture content on a
analyzed using the equivalent circuit model for cellular tis- dry basis (g/g) was calculated from both the initial moisture
sues, as previously described (Ando et al. 2014, 2017). The content and the mass. The exponential equation, including the
resistance of the extracellular fluid, Re, the resistance of the single rate constant as shown below, was used to characterize
intracellular fluid, Ri, and the capacitance of the cell mem- the rehydration behavior of the samples (Krokida and
brane, Cm, were all individually calculated through this model. Marinos-Kouris 2003):
Detailed procedures for these analyses are described in a pre- M −M d
vious study (Ando et al. 2017). ¼ 1−expð−k r t Þ; ð4Þ
M s −M d

where Md and Ms denote the moisture content of the dried

Scanning Electron Microscopy sample and the saturated moisture content, respectively. kr
denotes the rehydration rate constant (h−1), and t denotes the
Fresh and pretreated samples were studied via scanning time (h). Constants kr and Ms were determined by fitting Eq.
electron microscopy (SEM) to evaluate the cell wall ad- (4) to the averaged values of experimental data using the least
hesion of tissue samples. The centers of the samples were squares method.
cut with a sharp knife into small blocks approximately
3.5 mm wide and 1 mm thick, before being rapidly frozen Mechanical Properties of the Rehydrated Samples
in liquid nitrogen and freeze-dried. The cross-sectional
surfaces of the freeze-dried blocks were sputter-coated Puncture tests of the rehydrated samples were carried out
with gold in a sputter coater (JFC-1500; JEOL Ltd., using a universal testing machine (5542; Instron, Norwood,
Tokyo, Japan). These cross-sections were then observed MA, USA) equipped with a 500 N load cell. The dried sam-
using an SEM (JSM-5600LV; JEOL Ltd.) at an accelerat- ples were placed on a metal base with a 10-mm diameter hole
ing voltage of 5 kV under high vacuum conditions. The in the center. A cylindrical plunger of 3.2 mm in diameter was
internal structures of the samples after drying were also then inserted at a speed of 1 mm/s into the center of the flat
observed. Small blocks with approximately 2 mm sides surface of the sample until it passed through the center of the
were cut with a sharp knife from the center of the dried hole and completely penetrated the sample. The trigger load
samples. The cross-sectional surface was then observed in was set at 0.05 N. The thickness of the samples was measured
the same manner as previously described. using a caliper. The value of stress was calculated by dividing
 Food Bioprocess Technol

the force by the cross-sectional area of the plunger. The strain of the blanched and fresh-frozen samples at 40 °C showed
was calculated by dividing the displacement by the sample almost the same values. These results confirm that blanching
thickness. Fracture stress, σf (Pa), and initial elastic modulus, and freezing pretreatments are effective for facilitating mois-
E (Pa), were calculated as indices of the mechanical proper- ture transfer in pumpkin tissues during convective air-drying,
ties. The value of E was defined as the slope of the first linear which is in line with a previous study by Arévalo-Pinedo and
section of the stress-strain curve. The experiments were repli- Murr (2007) which showed the same effect during the vacuum
cated 12–14 times for each sample. The test was carried out at drying of pumpkins. In addition, the results show that the
a room temperature of 25 °C. blanching-freezing pretreatments are the most effective in in-
creasing the drying rate.
Statistical Analysis Figure 2 shows the impedance characteristics on the com-
plex plane (Cole-Cole plot) of the fresh and pretreated sam-
Statistical analyses were performed using R software version ples. The impedance characteristics of the fresh sample
3.5.1 (R Core Team). Differences among the means were displayed a relatively large semicircle with a diameter of
compared using a Tukey multiple range test with the analysis 20 kΩ while those of the pretreated samples appeared mark-
of variance at a significance level of p < 0.05. edly shrunk. It has been reported that the shrinkage of the
impedance characteristics of plant tissues occurs during freez-
ing (Wu et al. 2008; Zhang and Willison 1992) and heating
(Zhang et al. 1993; Halder et al. 2011). The phenomenon is
Results and Discussion thought to be a result of structural damage to the cell mem-
branes. Therefore, the impedance characteristic results suggest
Figure 1 shows changes in moisture content versus drying that the cell membranes in the pretreated pumpkin tissues
time for the fresh samples. As found in previous studies, the were damaged during the blanching and freezing-thawing
moisture content decreased faster at higher drying tempera- processes.
tures, a trend that was also observed in each pretreated sample. The measured impedance data were then analyzed with the
The solid lines in Fig. 1 represent the least squares regression modified Hayden model (Ando et al. 2017). The solid lines in
analysis of the model, shown as Eq. (1), showing the good Fig. 2 represent approximations given by the model fitted by
agreement with the experimental data. The effective diffusion the complex nonlinear least squares method. Note that the
coefficient D values determined from the analysis are shown straight-line sections of the low-frequency areas were re-
in Table 1. For each condition, the root mean squared error moved because they occurred due to the polarization phenom-
between the experimental and approximate data was in the enon at the electrode surface (Pliquett 2010; Kalvøy et al.
range of 0.026 to 0.051. The D value of the pretreated samples 2011) and are not related to the cellular structure. The mea-
tended to increase under any temperature during drying, as sured impedance and approximate values show a good agree-
compared to the fresh samples. In particular, the values of ment for all samples, which confirms that the present model is
the blanched-frozen samples showed the highest D values at acceptable for the application. The estimated values of the
1.10–1.11 times higher than those of the fresh samples. The D parameters in the model are shown in Table 2. The values of
values of the fresh-frozen samples were slightly higher than cell membrane capacitance, Cm, were highest in the fresh
those of blanched samples at 60 °C and 80 °C, whereas those samples, while the values in other samples decreased. The
1.0 high capacitance of biological tissues is thought to depend
on the lipid bilayer structure of the cell membrane
40 °C (Ashrafuzzaman and Tuszynski 2012). Therefore, the high
(M Me)/(M0 Me) (-)

0.8
60 °C
Cm value of the fresh sample potentially occurred as a result
80 °C
0.6 of the maintenance of the membrane structures. However, the
Approximation
Cm values of the blanched and fresh-frozen samples decreased
0.4 to 43% and 27%, respectively. A decrease in Cm has been
reported in previous studies on the heating of spinach
0.2 (Watanabe et al. 2017) and Japanese radish (Ando et al.
2017). This phenomenon was attributed to the thermal dena-
0.0 turation of phospholipids which constitute the cell membrane.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 It has been previously reported that Cm values decreased to
Drying time (h) 25% in apples (Ando et al. 2019b) and 53% in carrots (Ando
Fig. 1 Changes in the moisture ratio during drying of the non-treated
et al. 2016) during freezing treatment at − 20 °C. These results
pumpkin slices. The data are mean values of 6 replicates. The solid are thought to stem from the formation of ice crystals during
lines represent approximations given by Eq. (1) the freezing process. The lower Cm values of the fresh-frozen
Food Bioprocess Technol

Table 1 Effective diffusion coefficient of moisture during convective air-drying of pumpkin slices estimated from Eq. (1)

Fresh Blanched Fresh-frozen Blanched-frozen

Drying temperature D × 1010 (m2/s) RMSE (−) D × 1010 (m2/s) RMSE (−) D × 1010 (m2/s) RMSE (−) D × 1010 (m2/s) RMSE (−)

40 °C 1.06 0.039 1.13 0.045 1.11 0.051 1.16 0.049

60 °C 2.11 0.034 2.20 0.034 2.30 0.035 2.32 0.032
80 °C 3.59 0.030 3.73 0.028 3.89 0.026 4.00 0.028

RMSE root mean squared error for the model fitting

samples suggest that freezing treatment is destructive to the damage followed by the release of intra-cellular water into the
cell membrane structure. The blanched-frozen samples that extracellular region. Therefore, changes in the Re and Ri
were stressed by both heating and freezing treatments showed values of the blanched samples observed in this study were
the lowest Cm value (7.5% of that of the fresh sample), sug- attributed to this same phenomenon due to heating stress to the
gesting considerable damage to the cell membrane structure. cell membranes. During the freezing process, the interior of
In healthy cells, the low electrolyte concentration of the the cells is rapidly dehydrated with ice crystal growth in the
extra-cellular fluid and high electrolyte concentration of the extracellular region. This stress causes the alteration of mem-
intracellular fluid are separated by the permselectivity of the brane transport properties (Palta 1990) resulting in fatal dis-
cell membranes. Therefore, the high values of extra-cellular ruption of the cell membrane (Ando et al. 2012).
fluid resistance, Re, and low values of intra-cellular resistance, Changes in the Re and Ri of the fresh-frozen samples can be
Ri, of the fresh samples indicate that the cell membranes are explained by this phenomenon. The change ratio of the Re and
functioning normally. In the pretreated samples, the Re values Ri values of blanched-frozen samples tended to increase, as
decreased, and the Ri values increased indicating a difference with the changes in the Cm values, compared to the blanched
in electrolyte concentration between the intra- and extra- or fresh-frozen samples. These results suggest that the cell
cellular fluids. This difference occurred as a result of the cell membranes were markedly damaged in the blanched-frozen
membranes being unable to function correctly. In a study by sample. Figure 3 shows the SEM images of cross-sections of
Halder et al. (2011), the impedance of potato tissues during the fresh and pretreated samples. Cells with an approximate
heating sharply declined in the temperature range of 52– 50 μm diameter in the tissues of fresh samples (Fig. 3A, a)
60 °C. This outcome was found to be due to cell membrane were densely arranged. The cell walls were split, and the in-
teriors of the cells containing starch particles of approximately
10 μm in diameter were exposed. In the fresh samples, the cell
Approximation
10
Fresh
walls strongly adhered to each other, whereas the blanched
Reactance (k )

samples showed a loosely bound structure of the cell walls

8
(Fig. 3B, b), likely due to a β-elimination reaction splitting the
4 homogalacturonan chains that primarily comprise the pectin
structure (Sila et al. 2009). In the blanched sample, the cell
5 MHz 5 kHz
2 walls were divided at the middle lamella when the tissue was
cut due to this reaction. Therefore, the saclike structures of the
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 cell walls were exposed, and the interiors of the cells were not
Approximation
0.3
Blanched
Reactance (k )

Fresh-frozen Table 2 Equivalent circuit parameters obtained from the model fitting
0.2 Blanched-frozen
Cm (pF) Re (kΩ) Ri (kΩ)
5 MHz
0.1 Fresh 509a ± 8 22.47a ± 0.61 0.80c ± 0.03
Blanched 219b ± 14 1.39b ± 0.03 2.56b ± 0.17
5 kHz Fresh-frozen 138c ± 17 1.22b ± 0.05 2.03b ± 0.14
0.0
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 Blanched-frozen 38d ± 2 1.02b ± 0.03 6.99a ± 0.43

Resistance (k ) Cm capacitance of cell membrane, Re extracellular fluid resistance, Ri

Fig. 2 Representative Cole-Cole plots for the fresh, blanched, fresh- intracellular fluid resistance
frozen, and blanched-frozen pumpkin slice samples. The solid lines The values of Cm, Re, and Ri represent the mean values of 12 replicates (±
represent approximations given by the modified Hayden model (Ando standard error). Different superscripts indicate significant differences
et al. 2017) (p < 0.05) between the means compared by a Tukey’s multiple range test
 Food Bioprocess Technol

(A) (a) growth of ice crystals during freezing also contributed to an

increase in moisture diffusivity. In particular, the highest D
values of the blanched-frozen samples were attributed to the
marked damage to both cell membranes and cell wall struc-
tures, suggesting that blanching-freezing pretreatment is effec-
tive in increasing the drying rate and reducing the drying time
required.
(B) (b) Figure 4 shows the changes in the color parameters, light-
ness L*, chroma C*, and Hue angle h during drying at 60 °C.
The lower values of L* and C* of the blanched and blanched-
frozen samples before drying compared to other samples are
likely due to leakage of the gas spaces present in the tissue, as
reported in studies on the vacuum impregnation of pears
(Perez-Cabrera et al. 2011) and papayas (Yang et al. 2017).
It is theorized that the internal gas expands and therefore
(C) (c)
forces its way out of the tissue during blanching. This occur-
rence results in the replacement of the gas phase by the liquid

(a) Lightness L* Fresh

Blanched
80 Fresh-frozen
Blanched-frozen
70

Lightness L* (-)
(D) (d) 60

50

40

30
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

Fig. 3 Scanning electron micrographs of cross sections of the fresh (A, a), (b) Chroma C*
blanched (B, b), fresh-frozen (C, c), and blanched-frozen (D, d) pumpkin 100
slices (A, B, C, and D: × 100 images, a, b, c, and d: × 500 images)
80
Chroma C* (-)

observed. The tissues of the fresh-frozen samples showed

sparse structures presumed to have occurred due to ice crystal 60
formation during freezing (Fig. 3C, c). Although the structures
Fresh
are largely disrupted in the fresh-frozen samples, the separa- 40 Blanched
Fresh-frozen
tions between the cell walls as seen in the blanched samples Blanched-frozen
20
were not observed. In the blanched-frozen samples, a sparse 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
structure was observed as with the fresh-frozen sample, and
the cell walls were largely separated compared to the (c) Hue angle h
blanching samples (Fig. 3D, d). 90

In terms of the relation of the damages to the cell mem-

Hue angle h (degree)

brane caused by the pretreatments and the moisture diffusivity, 85

the samples with a higher change ratio of the parameters, i.e.,

80
with more significant damage to the cell membranes, had
higher D values. This result is consistent with a previous Fresh
75 Blanched
study by Ando et al. (2012) which claims that structural and Fresh-frozen
functional damage to cell membranes leads to an increase in 70
Blanched-frozen

water permeability and accelerates moisture transfer in plant 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
Drying time (h)
tissues. In addition, it was assumed that damage to the cell
walls, i.e., the separation of cell walls attributed to changes in Fig. 4 Changes in the lightness (a), chroma (b), and Hue angle (c) of
pumpkin slice samples during convective air-drying at 60 °C. The data
pectin structures by heating, and physical damage due to the
are mean values of 8 replicates. Bars denote standard error
Food Bioprocess Technol

phase, inducing more homogenous refractive indices in the brown compounds due to Maillard reactions during drying.
tissues. This event promotes light absorption against scatter- However, in this study, subequal decreases in h values were
ing resulting in the tissue samples becoming transparent with observed even when drying at low temperatures. This result
decreasing in lightness and chroma (Chiralt and Talens 2005). suggests that the reaction that occurs in the blanching process
Furthermore, swollen starch particles due to gelatinization forms brown compounds; then, they are concentrated with
during heating may have also contributed to the optical prop- drying and strongly reflected in the h values of gelatinized
erties. The values of L* and C* of the fresh-frozen samples dried tissues with lower scattering and higher transparency.
were slightly lower than those of the fresh samples due to the These trends of color change are similar at other drying tem-
destruction of cellular structures and the inflow of cellular peratures, and they are dependent on moisture content, not
water into the intercellular spaces during freezing. The L* drying time (data not shown).
values of the blanched and blanched-frozen samples tend to Figure 5 shows the internal structure of the pumpkin slice
decrease even further from the initial low values. This result samples after drying at 60 °C. In the fresh samples, structures
may be attributed to the high amorphous starch fractions of the with densely packed starch particles approximately 10 μm in
gelatinized starch maintained during drying (Xiang et al. diameter are observed (Fig. 5a). Structures of the blanched
2018) which indicates restrained light scattering and low light- samples show a smooth surface (Fig. 5b) as observed in dried
ness. The L* and C* values of the fresh-frozen and blanched- starch noodles (Xiang et al. 2018). This result demonstrates
frozen samples tend to decrease more substantially than those the state in which gelatinized starch particles are accumulated
of the fresh and blanched samples during the drying process. and densely compressed by the drying shrinkage. In the fresh-
This result may be explained by the oxidization of carotenoids frozen samples, although starch particles were observed as
(Song et al. 2017) which is prone to occur in the frozen- with the fresh samples, pores formed due to ice crystal forma-
thawed tissues where the cell walls and membranes are sig- tion during freezing were distributed throughout the inside
nificantly destroyed (Park 1987). The fact that the decrease in (Fig. 5c). The blanched-frozen samples also showed a porous
the C* value was almost depended on the decrease in the b* structure with many airspaces (Fig. 5d), though the starch
value (decrease in yellowness) supports this view. The values particles were gelatinized entirely. Figure 6 shows changes
of the hue angles h of the fresh samples were nearly constant in the moisture content during rehydration at 30 °C for each
during drying. However, the values of other samples de- dried sample. The moisture content of the blanched-frozen
creased, especially for the blanched and blanched-frozen sam- samples reached its saturation at the lowest time of 1 h, while
ples which showed lower values compared to the fresh-frozen other samples required more than 3 h. The estimated values of
samples. Decreases in hue angles during the air-drying of the rehydration rate constant kr are 0.96, 2.10, 2.25, and
blanched pumpkins have been previously reported (Song 7.38 h−1 for the fresh, blanched, fresh-frozen, and blanched-
et al. 2017). This phenomenon is thought to be a result of frozen samples, respectively. Here, the determination coeffi-
the degradation of carotenoid pigments and the formation of cients for all samples are greater than 0.99, which indicates

Fig. 5 Scanning electron

micrographs of cross sections of (a) (b)
the fresh (a), blanched (b), fresh-
frozen (c), and blanched-frozen
(d) pumpkin slices after
convective air-drying at 60 °C

(c) (d)
 Food Bioprocess Technol

Moisture content (g/g dry basis) 3.0 (a) Before drying

40
Fresh
Blanched
30 Fresh-frozen
2.0

Stress (kPa)
Blanched-frozen

Fresh 20
Blanched
1.0 Fresh-frozen 10
Blanched-frozen
Approximation
0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
0.0 Strain (-)
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4
Rehydration time (h)

Stress (kPa)
3
Fig. 6 Changes in the moisture content of the pumpkin slice samples 2
dried at 60 °C during rehydration at 30 °C. The data are mean values of
6 replicates. The solid lines represent approximations given by the 1
exponential model shown as Eq. (4) 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Strain (-)
that the model was appropriate for explaining the rehydration
phenomenon. Water can generally be absorbed more efficient- (b) After drying and rehydration
ly by amorphous food materials than by crystalline materials
Fresh
during hydration (Xiang et al. 2018). Therefore, the higher kr 2
Blanched
values of the blanched and blanched-frozen samples could be Fresh-frozen

Stress (kPa)
explained by their higher amorphous starch fractions due to Blanched-frozen

gelatinization during blanching. In addition, the porous inter-

1
nal structures of the fresh-frozen and blanched-frozen samples
mean that there is a larger surface area to absorb water which
may also contribute to the high values of kr. These results
show that the blanching and freezing treatments before drying 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
are effective in increasing the rehydration rate of the dried Strain (-)
samples. Fig. 7 Representative stress-strain curves by the puncture test of the fresh
Figure 7 shows the representative stress-strain curves by and pretreated pumpkin slices before drying (a) and after drying at 60 °C
the puncture test of the fresh and pretreated pumpkin slices and rehydration at 30 °C (b)
before drying and after drying-rehydration. Before drying, the
stress of the fresh sample was significantly higher than that of blanched samples because the dissociation of the cell walls by
pretreated samples, which is considered to be due to the in- heating did not occur.
tegrity of the cellular structure. Although the value was de- Conversely, the fresh-frozen sample showed a marked de-
creased in the samples after drying-rehydration, the stress of crease in the E value (96% decrease). The reduction of turgor
the fresh sample was higher than that of other samples as pressure due to changes in cell membrane states is a major
before drying. Table 3 shows the fracture stress, σf, and initial factor for the mechanical parameters, especially the elasticity
modulus, E, of the samples before drying and after drying- of vegetable tissues (Chassagne-Berces et al. 2009; Ando et al.
rehydration. Before drying, the highest values of σf and E are 2012). Therefore, the low E value of the fresh-frozen samples
observed in fresh samples attributable to the maintained integ- can be explained through structural and functional damage to
rity of the cell walls and cell membrane structures. However, the cell membranes by freezing treatment, as suggested by the
in the blanched samples, the σf value markedly decreases impedance analysis. The blanched-frozen samples which were
(94% decrease) compared to the fresh samples, which is po- subjected to heating and freezing stresses show markedly de-
tentially attributable to the loosely bound structure of the cell creased values of σf and E.
walls, as shown in Fig. 3b, due to the degradation of pectin As for the samples after drying-rehydration, although the
structures caused by heating (Sila et al. 2009). The σf value of fresh sample had the highest values of σf and E compared to
the fresh-frozen samples also decreased purportedly due to the other samples, they were significantly decreased compared to
destruction of the cell wall structures caused by ice crystal the fresh sample before drying, likely due to structural destruc-
formation during freezing and cell membrane damage demon- tion during drying (Ando et al. 2014), indicating that it is
strated by the impedance analysis. However, the σf value of difficult to restore the values by rehydration. In the blanched
the fresh-frozen samples was slightly retained compared to the samples, the values of σf and E decreased to 33% and 13%,
Food Bioprocess Technol

Table 3 Mechanical properties of the pumpkin slice samples sample, and that of blanched and fresh-frozen samples was
Condition Fracture stress σf (Pa) Initial modulus E (Pa) almost the same level. The estimated value of moisture diffu-
sivity was lowest in fresh samples at each drying temperature,
Before drying potentially due to the cell wall and cell membrane structures
Fresh 36,535a ± 1908 44,090a ± 3399 maintaining their integrity and restraining water transfer.
Blanched 2129bc ± 114 16,649b ± 1167 Among pretreated samples, the blanched-frozen samples
Fresh-frozen 4607b ± 518 1770c ± 149 show the highest value of moisture diffusivity at 1.10–1.11
Blanched-frozen 326c ± 18 1388c ± 128 times higher than those of the fresh samples at each drying
After drying at 60 °C and rehydration at 30 °C temperature. This result suggests the structural and functional
Fresh 1918a ± 143 7718a ± 534 damages to the cell walls and cell membranes by the pretreat-
Blanched 710b ± 40 2174b ± 361 ments facilitate moisture transfer increasing the drying rate.
Fresh-frozen 722b ± 108 1018b ± 197 Changes in color were found to appear predominantly in
Blanched-frozen 442b ± 39 1025b ± 114 the blanched samples, and the influence of freezing was lim-
ited. This change is potentially attributed to an increase in
The values represent the mean values of 12–14 replicates (± standard transparency due to starch gelatinization, and the formation
error). Different superscripts indicate significant differences (p < 0.05)
between the means compared by a Tukey’s multiple range test. The
of brown compounds concentrated with drying. Moreover,
values of the samples before drying and after drying-rehydration were starch gelatinization by blanching and the formation of pores
separately compared during freezing greatly influenced the structures of the dried
samples, resulting in increases of the rehydration rate. In par-
respectively, through drying-rehydration treatment for the ticular, the rehydration rate of the blanched-frozen samples
same reason. The lower value of E of the fresh-frozen sample showed the highest value, 7.7 times higher compared to the
than that of the blanched sample indicates that the formation fresh sample. However, significant reductions in the parame-
of pores in tissues due to freezing treatment results in a further ters of the mechanical properties by the pretreatments were
reduction in elasticity of the rehydrated sample. The values of observed in the mechanical test of the sample after drying-
σf and E of the blanched-frozen sample did not change before rehydration. These findings may be valuable in predicting
or after drying-rehydration, indicating that structural destruc- drying times and quality attributes and designing appropriate
tion occurs mostly before drying and no further mechanical drying and pretreatment conditions. The calculation of total
change occurs during the drying-rehydration process. The re- energy spent throughout the process of pretreatment and dry-
sults reveal that the blanching and freezing pretreatments were ing and the optimization of the process conditions taking into
effective in increasing the rehydration rate of the dried mate- account for the consumer acceptability of the texture and other
rials but lead to a reduction in the parameters of mechanical quality attributes should be addressed in future work.
properties.
Funding Information This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI
Grant Number JP18K14554.

Conclusions
Compliance with Ethical Standards
This study aimed to clarify the relationship between the mois-
Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
ture diffusivity of pumpkin slices during convective air-drying interest.
and changes in the cellular structure due to blanching and
freezing pretreatments, as well as the quality attributes of the
dried products. The loosely bound structure of the cell walls
likely due to a β-elimination reaction splitting the References
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