Rapid production of dried sea cucumber (stichopus japonicus) using infrared assisted freeze drying (IRAFD)

The feasibility of infrared assisted freeze drying (IRAFD) was evaluated for shelf stable sea cucumber to improve the traditional drying methods such as freeze drying (FD), vacuum drying (VD) and hot air drying (AD, 60, 80, 100^oC). Infrared (IR) radiant energy was provided to accelerate the drying rate of freeze drying (FD). IRAFD had the most rapid drying rate among IRAFD, FD and VD. IRAFD showed drying time of 13.7 h followed by VD (18.7 h) and FD (24.3 h). In the final moisture content of sea cucumber, it decreased down to 3.25% at IRAFD. However, FD and VD could not reduce down the moisture content of sea cucumber below 7%. Quality attributes of AD sea cucumber were not acceptable with very low restoration rate and excessive hardness. For example, AD 100 had very low weight restoration rate of 23% and hardness of 22 N. IRAFD showed quite high restoration rates (weight: 50%, width: 82%, length: 91%) and acceptable hardness of 3.1 N. IRAFD consumed the minimal electrical energy of 120 kJ as compared to 209 kJ of FD. This study showed the potential application of IRAFD to produce the shelf stable dried sea cucumber with microbial safety.