Osmotic dehydration of pomegranate [Punica granatum L.] using response surface methodology

For studying osmotic dehydration of pomegranate arils, a mathematical model was developed to quantify the responses of water loss, weight reduction and solute gain using response surface methodology. Under the experimental conditions, 15-32% water was lost, whereas 6-13% solids were gained. The high value [>0.98] for determination coefficient [R[2]] and adequate precision [> 38] and a low value for coefficient of variance [<2.5] was achieved for the developed model. Optimization of the model with the goal of maximum water loss and minimum solute gain resulted in 24.5% and 9.6% values, respectively, whereas, with the goal of minimum water loss and maximum solute gain resulted in 15.6% water loss and 13.8% solute gain