Drying Kinetics of Reduced Fat White Cheese Dried by Different Methods

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In the current study, three different drying methods, including hot air drying (50, 60, 70 °C and 1.8 m/s), microwave drying (180, 360, 540 W) and freeze-drying (0.2, 0.15, 0.1 mbar) were experimentally studied and the drying kinetics of reduced-fat white cheese (RFWC) were determined. Microwave drying process time was significantly shorter than hot air drying and freeze-drying for RFWC. Semi-empirical models were applied to determine the most appropriate drying model targeting the highest R2 and the lowest RMSE and χ2 values representing the drying kinetics of RFWC. The effective diffusion coefficient values for different drying methods varied from 1.521 x 10-9 to 4.432 x 10-8 m2/s. Through increasing the temperature, microwave power, and vacuum pressure, effective diffusion coefficient values increased. The activation energy values were determined as 12.421 kJ/mol for hot air drying and 5.599 W/g for microwave drying.