Increasing the Efficiency of the Drying Process of Fruits Treated Using SHF Method

The aim of this work is to increase the efficiency of the fruit drying process with the SHF treatment in a uniform rectilinear movement. In order to achieve the purpose of the work, an experimental installation for fruit drying was developed with the application of the SHF treatment in the uniform rectilinear movement, on the basis of which the research was carried out. The efficiency of the drying process with the application of the experimental installation was estimated for 3 types of fruits: peaches, pears and apples. These types of fruit have been selected for the study because their drying is currently problematic, and they are of great interest to consumers and to processing and marketing businesses. The main results obtained regarding the application of the plant developed for fruit drying are: the drying process speed increase, the heat processing time decrease, the electricity consumption reduction, the dried fruit quality improvement and the processing costs reduction. Moreover, the installation is simple in terms of construction, low cost and easy use. At the same time, the installation allows the automation of the process, and during the research it demonstrated a high level of safety. The significance of the results obtained lies in solving a number of current problems faced by primary agri-food processing companies, by streamlining the process of drying fruit in rounds, mainly by reducing the technological processing costs and improving the quality of dried fruit for storage, marketing and use in nutrition.