Selection of effective technological parameters of vacuum drying of firm cheeses

This work is devoted to the research of influence of such technological parameters of vacuum drying, as thickness of a layer and extent of grinding of the product, on efficiency of process. The experiments on vacuum drying of firm cheeses at selection of the above parameters were made. Their influence on the process duration, organoleptic assessment and mass fraction of moisture in dry products was established. It was established that with the in-crease in thickness of a layer of product duration of dehydration increases, however thus installation productivity in general increases. The size of rela-tive surface of a product at various extents of grind-ing and the form were calculated. The organoleptic assessment allowed establishing that the best qual-ity characterizes the cheeses dehydrated at the thickness from 10 to 30 mm. At this mode the or-ganoleptic assessment can reach 26 points. At in-crease in thickness of a layer to 40 mm the organo-leptic assessment decreases to 25-24 points. The mass fraction of moisture in dry cheeses depending on thickness of a layer of drying, the form of a product and extent of crushing was defined. Dry cheeses moisture content less than 7 % was ob-served at the thickness of layer no more than 30 mm, and also in the cheeses crushed in the form of plates, the sizes 17×2×1 and 55×5×2 of mm; cu-bes, 6х6х6 in size and 10×10×10 mm, and also rectangles, size 30×6×6 and 30×10×10 of mm. It has been found out that it is advisable to dehydrate the cheese under the given above parameters of grinding that provides minimal drying time, high-quality product performance, minimal power con-sumption, as well as the mass fraction of moisture not more than 7 %.