IMPACT OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SLICING ON THE AREA OF PIECES’ SURFACE

Abstract

Vegetable and fruit chips belong to the healthy food, which is growing in popularity every year among consumers. Such popularity of chips is caused by the fact that the product is made from natural raw materials and contains vitamins and useful substances for the human body. The technological line of chips production can be located in the vegetable and fruit farms. The technology of chips production from vegetable and fruit raw materials involves the operations of fruits and vegetable slicing and drying processes. The time and energy consumption of the drying process depend on the area of pieces’ surface and thickness of pieces. The intensity of drying process increases with increasing the area of pieces’ surface. Research of impact of fruit and vegetable slicing of various shapes on the area of pieces’ surface are presented in the article. The geometric models of fruit and vegetable are proposed for the calculation of the area of pieces’ surface. Models of fruit and vegetable have the shape of a sphere, cylinder, cone and ellipsoid. The theoretical equations were obtained for calculation of the area of pieces’ surface. The equations are depended on the shape of the fruit or vegetable model and the method of slicing. It was justified that the area of pieces’ surface increases with decreasing of pieces’ thickness. Experimental studies of apple and pear have shown the same results as theoretical ones.