Abstract:
Studies the effect of temperature and solid content on the electrical conductivity of pineapple-drinking yoghurt during the temperature range for HTST pasteurization. A static ohmic heating cell was designed and built. The cell was tested against 0.1 M NaCl and the accuracy of the device was tested by using 0.02 M NaCl and 0.1 M NaH2PO4 with voltage 4-6 volt and frequency 50 hertz which showed the differences between the measured and the reported electrical conductivity at 25ํC of 2-4%, 5%, and 11-14%, respectively. The effect of types of electrode material (stainless steel type 304, 316, and titanium) and voltage gradient (10, 20, 30, and 40 V/cm) on the electrical conductivity of pineapple-drinking yoghurt was studied. The pineapple-drinking yoghurt was made from 50% plain yoghurt, 15% pineapple juice (10ํBrix), 7% sugar, and 28% water and then mixed with 5%(w/w) pineapple having dimension of 1X1X1 cm. It was found that type of electrode material did not significantly affect the electrical conductivity of pineapple-drinking yoghurt (p>0.05) while the voltage gradient did. (p<-0.05). At the 10 V/cm voltage gradient, heating rate of pineapple-drinking yoghurt was low and there was no difference between the temperature of the solid and liquid. The heating rate and the difference between the solid and liquid temperatures increased as the voltage gradient increased. Finally, the effect of pineapple content (0-20% w/w) on the electrical conductivity of drinking yoghurt was studied at the voltage gradient of 20 and 30 V/cm. The result showed that the pineapple content significantly affected the electrical conductivity of pineapple-drinking yoghurt (p<-0.05). The electrical conductivity decreased as the solid content increased. From the relationship between the temperature of pineapple in the drinking yoghurt and time during heating in ohmic, it was found that the empirical equation could not predict the temperature change in range 0-80ํC due to the effect of size, shape, and solid orientation in the yoghurt