Water removal during drying of the pumpkin slabs occurs in the falling rate period. The reconstitution attributes are indicative of the degree of structural modification occurred during drying. The rehydration characteristic is correlated positively with the air temperature and drying treatment.
The methodology we have proposed, can give a good reason to be used in case of new experimental drying ovens and/or drying products or exploratory drying processes, when the most advantageous drying schedule must be selected from a number of variants. Since the drying results can be obtained by simulation of a large number of factor combinations and the outcomes processed by using a multifactor experiment, the experimental work can be reduced, the presence and magnitude of factors interactions can be estimated and recommendations over a large variety of conditions can be outlined.