Reeze-Drying Impact on Hardness of Selected Soft Fruit Liophilisates

The objective of the paper was to describe the impact of freeze-drying conditions on hardness of lyophilizates obtained based on soft fruit pomace. Raspberry, cherry, and grape pomace from the pressing process carried out with a low-speed rotary press constituted a research material. Immediately after the pressing process, pomaces were placed in forms, frozen, and after freezing they were freeze-dried in the pressure of 20, 42, 63, 85 and 110 Pa. The obtained lyophilizates were subjected to the measurement of hardness with the use of texture meter equipped with a penetrometer in the form of a cone with a vertical angle of 30°. The increase of pressure during freeze-drying of samples was accompanied by the increase of hardness of the obtained lyophilizates, which may affect the energy consumption of the grinding process and the nature of rehydration of the final product. Moreover, the water content of raw material, pomaces, and lyophilizates was determined. The obtained results of measurements were subjected to a statistical analysis which showed that the pressure of freeze-drying significantly diversifies the hardness of the obtained lyophilizates.