With the aim to evaluate how much water could be
absorbed (saturation moisture), pineapple samples pre-dried
with air at 75◦
C were rehydrated through 10h. The moisture
content reached only 52% of the moisture value in fresh fruit
used in this assay. It was observed that 60% ofthe water gain
took place in the first hour of immersion. As the saturation
moisture is smaller than fresh fruit moisture, we can infer
that irreversible structural damages have taken place in vegetal tissue during drying, resulting in a loss of rehydration
ability.This effect was observed by other researchers (Krokida
and Philippopoulos, 2005; Krokida and Marinos-Kouris, 2003)
during the rehydration of pre-dried fruits and vegetables