ABSTRACT
Radio frequency (RF) treatment technology has now been studied and used for kinds of food products as its rapid and volumetric heating effects. It is meaningful to study the characteristics of potato drying with a new RF treatment method. In this study, intermitted RF combined treatments were used to get high-efficiency dehydration effects for potato drying, but the impact and mechanism of RF radiation on drying efficiency or quality is still unknown. To explore the drying characteristics, the effects of different RF radiation and the associated intermittent periods on the characterization of color, crystalline, thermal, pasting, rheology, and structural properties of potato flour were systematically studied. Longer RF radiation period (7 min) has a positive effect on drying efficiency and quality. The effect of intermittent period was not as significant as that of RF radiation, but a slightly increasing trend of the quality properties with intermittent period also indicated the tempering effect. The combined action of RF intermittent treatment on potato drying was found and investigated in this study, which may support RF drying processing improvement.
