Comparative evaluation of the methods for drying the fruits of black mountain ash

The study provides a comparative analysis of vacuum, convection and sublimation methods for drying chokeberry fruits for preparing a powder, which will later be used as a component of a powdery concentrate from fruit and grain raw materials for preparing a soft drink. As a result of the research of various drying methods, it was determined that, in comparison with convection and vacuum methods, with freeze drying method of chokeberry fruits, physical and chemical, vitamin, and mineral composition of the raw material is 1-10 % higher. With convection method, protein is lower than with other investigated methods by 0.2-0.4 %, carbohydrates by 6.93-11.68 %, fat by 0.02 %, vitamin C by 15.13-15.49 mg / 100 g, vitamins B1 by 0.06 %, B2 by 0.17 %, PP by 0.41 %. It has been established that the fruits of chokeberry retain the maximum quality indicators after freeze drying. Mathematical processing of the research results confirmed that the maximum excess of indicators is observed in the "Freeze drying" option - an average of 318.6 % to the control, the minimum - in the "Vacuum drying" option - an average of 266.6 % to the control. The differences between the options are statistically significant at p