Moisture migration, microstructure and quality of sea cucumber during microwave vacuum drying (MVD) and rehydration process were charaterized in this study. Three water components were identified in sea cucumber using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) relaxation, and the three peaks of water components shifted to short relaxation time during MVD process. The peak area of major water component immobilized water decreased significantly due to water evaporation induced by MVD. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) found that the water in the internal layer of sea cucumber body wall was firstly removed due to the internal heating of microwave, and then the water in the outer layer. Higher microwave power could accelerate the moisture migration during drying process, and shorten the drying time. Porous microstructure was observed by Cryo scanning electronic microscope images in sea cucumber dried with microwave power of 200 and 250 W, which might be responsible for high values of rehydration ratio and water holding capacity. High microwave power caused the increase of amino acids content, the change of saponins content was not significant. In addition, excellent prediction models of moisture ratio have been developed by partial least squares regression analysis based on transverse relaxation data, which proved the feasibility of LF-NMR to monitor water changes of sea cucumber during MVD process.

Charaterization of moisture migration, microstructure and quality of sea cucumber during microwave vacuum drying and rehydration process

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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