Antonio (2006) carried out a study on the osmotic dehy-
dration of yellow sweet potato (cultivar ‘Mona Lisa’) slices
using Response Surface Methodology. The water loss,
solids addition and water activity were analyzed during the
process (120 min), considering the temperature (30-50°C),
sucrose concentration (40-60% w/w) and salt concentration
(0-10% w/w) of the osmotic solution as the independent
variables. The author observed that the sucrose and salt con-
centrations, followed by the temperature, were the most sig-
nificant factors for water loss and solids addition. However,
with respect to the water activity, the effects of the salt and
sucrose concentrations were more pronounced than the
solution temperature. The optimized condition for maxi-
mum water loss and minimum solids gain was 40°C, 50%
(w/w) sucrose and 5% (w/w) salt, considering the levels
used. Fig. 4 presents the curves of the kinetics for osmotic
dehydration under the optimized condition.