Evaluating Kinetics of Convection Drying and Microstructure Characteristics of Asian Seabass Fish Skin without and with Ultrasound Pretreatment

Mohammad Fikry; Soottawat Benjakul; Saleh Al-Ghamdi; Mohamed Tagrida; Thummanoon Prodpran

doi:10.3390/foods12163024

Evaluating Kinetics of Convection Drying and Microstructure Characteristics of Asian Seabass Fish Skin without and with Ultrasound Pretreatment

Foods. 2023 Aug 11;12(16):3024. doi: 10.3390/foods12163024.

Authors

Mohammad Fikry^{1

2}, Soottawat Benjakul^{2

3}, Saleh Al-Ghamdi⁴, Mohamed Tagrida², Thummanoon Prodpran^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Moshtohor, Toukh 13736, Egypt.
² International Center of Excellence in Seafood Science and Innovation, Faculty of Agro-Industry, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.
³ Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Agricultural Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Center of Excellence in Bio-Based Materials and Packaging Innovation, Faculty of Agro-Industry, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90110, Thailand.

Abstract

Convection drying in combination with ultrasound pretreatment has emerged as a promising technology for seafood manufacturing. The primary objective of this research was to model the mass transfer process of Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) fish skin without and with ultrasound pretreatment during convection drying at different temperatures (45, 55, and 65 °C). Additionally, the study aimed to examine the impact of ultrasound pretreatment and temperatures on the drying characteristics and specific energy consumption for drying of Asian seabass fish skin. Seven semi-theoretical models, namely Lewis, Page, modified Page, Vega-Lemus, Verma, Henderson and Pabis, and two-term models, were employed to characterize the moisture transfer process. The results of the study indicated a decrease in the moisture content as the drying time increased at different drying temperatures. Higher drying temperatures were associated with an increased drying rate. Among the mathematical models tested, the modified Page model provided a satisfactory description of the thin-layer drying characteristics of fish skin. Fick's law of diffusion was utilized to determine the effective moisture diffusivities. Comparing the drying of fish skin without (SS) and with ultrasound pretreatment (US-SS), the drying of the latter generally showed higher D_eff values. The temperature dependence of the effective diffusivity coefficient was well described by the Arrhenius-type model. An increase in the drying temperature resulted in an increment of the effective moisture diffusivity. In general, the skin pretreated using ultrasound had a reduced drying time, by up to 28%. Additionally, this approach contributed to an approximate 22% reduction in the specific energy consumption, concurrently enhancing the energy efficiency. The microstructure analysis showed that fresh and dried US-SS samples had a more open structure and higher porosity, in comparison to the corresponding SS samples. These findings contribute to the knowledge on the application of ultrasound as the pretreatment of fish skin before drying and provide valuable insights for the development of potential drying techniques in the seafood industry.

Keywords: drying; fish skin; mathematical modeling; microstructure; ultrasound.

Grants and funding

Financial support from the Deputyship of Research and Innovation, “Ministry of Education” in Saudi Arabia for funding this research (IFKSUOR3-487-1) and Reinventing University program, Prince of Songkla University are acknowledged.