This study is aimed to investigate the possibility of using halogen lamp-microwave combination oven for production of bread crumbs. In addition, the drying conditions in this combination oven to produce bread crumbs with the highest quality were determined. Bread dough was dried from 40.9% to 8% moisture content by conventional oven, microwave, infrared and infrared-assisted microwave drying. In the experiments 30%, 50% and 70% halogen lamp and/or microwave powers were used. As a control, conventional oven drying at 75癈 was used. Moisture content, colour and water of binding capacity of bread crumbs were determined. Conventional drying time was reduced significantly with the usage of infrared, microwave and infrared-assisted microwave drying. Percent reduction in the drying time was found as 96.5% to 98.6% for microwave, 80.2% to 94.0% for infrared and 96.8% to 98.6% for infrared-assisted microwave drying. Total color change values were lower in microwave and higher in infrared drying with respectto the conventional drying. When drying was done by infrared-assisted microwave drying similar color values with the conventionally dried bread crumbs were encountered. Microwave, infrared and infrared-assisted microwave drying methods were effective inincreasing water binding capacity. As long as time and energy reduction and high quality were considered, the optimum condition in infrared-assisted microwave drying for production of bread crumbs can be selected as 50% microwave and 30% halogen lamp power.
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