Drying kinetics, adsorption isotherms and quality characteristics of vacuum-dried beef slices with different salt contents.

In this study, the effect of salt content (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 g/100 g dry basis) on the drying kinetics, adsorption isotherms, and quality characteristics of beef slices were investigated. Beef slices were salted and vacuum-dried at 70 °C, until a moisture content of 32% (dry basis). The adsorption isotherms of the dried beef slices were described at 25 °C. The drying time for beef slices at the salt contents of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 g NaCl/100 g d.b. were 212, 207, 194, 160 and 137 min respectively. Modified Henderson and Pabis, and Page models exhibited a better fit for the drying kinetics of beef slices than the other drying models tested. The adsorption isotherm of dried beef slices is typical Type-II, but the addition of salt led to this behavior to change to type III. The BET model (R2 > 0.98 and %E ≤ 13.40) for all samples exhibited a good fit to the experimental data.