Application of basic drying theory to determine drying mass constants of selected seafoods

The drying of seafood could ensure increase in life span, minimization of storage space, ease of transportation, etc of the product. It is therefore, necessary to dry and know when to stop drying at an appropriate moisture content that would minimize associated challenges in promoting food security. In this study, selected sea foods, such as prawn and oyster were obtained and then dried to determine their drying mass constants using model equation developed based on basic drying principle. The value of the constants obtained would provide data bank to facilitates prediction of mass of the drying material at given time that would correspond to any desired moisture content, provided the initial moisture content of the material is known. The plots of moisture content against drying time, drying rate against drying time and moisture content versus were carried out. It was observed that increase in size of the drying material increased the drying time. Moreover, the drying rate curve resembles a typical drying curve. Hence, the experimental values obtained are reliable. Technical analysis showed that the drying mass constants for prawn and oyster are 0.2950 ± 0.0119 and 0.2453 ± 0.0476, respectively.