LAUSR

Abstract The aim of the study was to determine the influence of four different growing locations of apples cv. ‘Jonagold’ in Europe on the drying kinetics and the physical properties of dried apple slices. The drying methods applied in the study (freeze-drying, convective drying, microwave-vacuum drying and combined drying) significantly affected the drying time, which was the shortest in the case of microwave vacuum drying. The geographical origin of the apples affected the chemical and physical properties of the raw material used for drying, and, consequently, the drying time. Water activity of dried samples was connected with the final dry matter, regardless of the geographical origin of the apples. Freeze-drying resulted in the lightest in colour products (L*), whereas microwave-vacuum dried products had the highest levels of yellow pigments (b*). The highest chroma and browning index values were noted for microwave-vacuum dried samples and were strongly influenced by the drying temperature. The mechanical properties of the apple slices were more dependent on the drying method and temperature of the process than on the geographical origin when the temperature exceeded 83 °C.