RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Drying Curves
The drying behaviour for the freeze drying
process of FPP was determined from the mass
loss in samples of known initial moisture content.
The drying times required for freeze drying are
substantially long when compared to the
conventional drying methods which may change
depending on temperature, air velocity and
humidity. During drying process, the total time
was determined to be 9 hours by following the
change in weight of the samples which can be
compared with a drying time of 8 hours for
convective drying around 30 °C (8). The change
of the moisture content (dry basis) of samples
versus time was shown in Figure 1. As expected,
the higher percentage of weight loss of moisture
content occurs in the early stages of drying and
the moisture content decreased considerably
with increasing the drying time.