A previous study demonstrated that the color of 4 mm mango slices is altered very slightly by drying for 5 h at 60 °C, 30% RH and 1 m/s. The objectives of this complementary study were to determine the impact of various drying procedures encountered in the drying units on color alterations of sulfite-free mango slices from heterogeneous raw material due to variable maturity degrees of mangoes. Drying procedures with various temperature/humidity/duration combinations were performed to analyze their effects on the color of natural dried mangoes according to the degree of fruit maturity. They were dried at an air speed of 1.0 m/s for 5 h according to 3 schemes: standard drying (SD) at 60 °C and 30% RH; wet drying (WD) for 1 h at 60 °C and 60% RH, followed by 4 h SD; and finally, hot drying (HD) for 4 h SD, followed by 1 h at 80 °C and 30% RH. The color of the mango slices was analyzed before and after drying. SD preserves the color of fresh mangoes very well, whatever their maturity stage. A relatively slow drying onset corresponding to WD has a highly adverse impact, which becomes greater as the degree of maturity increases. There is already significant browning on mangoes with near-optimum quality (L* = 75; H* = 92). Applying high temperature at the end of the drying procedure (HD) for 20% of the time has a more limited adverse impact with immature mangoes that are the most sensitive. Linear regressions were assessed to represent the relationships of color differences between drying schemes according to mango maturity degrees. These statistical models showed a significant increase in color degradation in the case of WD and a decrease in color differences in the case of HD with the advance in fruit maturity.
Keywords: color; dried mangoes; mango; maturity stage; quality; ripening.